GENE [DADDY]

This is my father, Gene Gibson when he was about 10 years old.

My Dad, Gene Gibson must have been around 18 years old in this picture.

This is Fred and Gussie Hooper [My Mother's brother and wife] and Inez & Gene Gibson at the Mississippi River.

In those days they weren't allowed to single date.

Gene Gibson, the youngest child of Wash and Vennie Gibson grew up in Dyer county on a farm. His best friend, a boy named George Willie Alford, lived in "town" Dyersburg. They would frequently spend the night at each other's house. Daddy thought George Willie was rich because his family had "boxed cereal " for breakfast, whereas Daddy had only ham, bacon, eggs, biscuits and that kind of food. Daddy said he could have eaten the whole box himself; he never could get the milk and cereal to end at the same time so he had to either keep adding cereal or milk. George Willie grew up to be an official in the Church of God.

Daddy had to work really hard as a boy, working for Mr. Bernard Tarrant for 75 cents a day. He kind of worked his way up to be a farmer himself and eventually purchased Mr. Bernard's homeplace to live in. Mr. Bernard was a peculiar man. Even after he built a bathroom in his home, he would not use it, but preferred to go to the barn.

Daddy had to walk everywhere he went, not having a car. He used to walk to Newbern to court Mother and would walk in his old shoes and stop at someone's barn , put on his good shoes and leave his old ones to pick up on the way back.

He idolized his older brother John Austin, whom he called "Border", because he could not say "brother" when he was little. They farmed together all their adult life. Daddy would go over to John's house every morning before they ate breakfast to find out what the plan of the day was.

They were very close, even dying within six months of one another. Daddy was the more serious one, with John Austin being the happy-go-lucky one. Mother and MayFlower were very good friends and never had an ill word with each other. After Mother died, MayFlower said that she and Mother were like sisters. Just keep in mind that they all lived within shouting distance of each other in Hurricane Hill Community. In fact, I grew up in a community where everyone was related to everyone else; if that won't keep you on the straight and narrow, I can't imagine what would! Daddy sure loved his family and really would have loved to see his grandsons, Shane and Troy, grow up.

INEZ [MOTHER]

The young lady in the above picture is Barbara Ellen Hooper Roberts

From left to right is J.L, Inez, Julia, Elizabeth, Fred -1986

On the back row in this picture is R.C., J.L., Fred, Walter and in the front row is Elizabeth, Inez, Minnie and Julia. The time of this picture is 1966

In this picture is Fred, Julia, Ocie, Elizabeth, Joe, Inez, J.L. The time is 1938

This is Pappa Hooper with Elizabeth. I bet he never thought his picture would on this blog.

What about that car? Look close, is that Bonnie and Clyde in the background? No, it's just some good folks having fun. That's Inez sitting to the far right next to Elizabeth and some other friends.

Don't you wish you had a hat like one of these. That's Elizabeth on the left and Inez is third from left.

Relaxing on a summer day is Minnie with her daughter Inez

Inez, my Mother, was the baby of her family. She was born after some of her older brothers had left home already. Of course, back then young people left home as soon as they were able to work. Being the youngest, she was spoiled by all her family. Minnie was 44 yrs. old when she was born. There was Ocie, J.L., Joe, Beatrice, Fred, Julia, Elizabeth and then Inez. Ocie ran a grocery store and was married to Lizzie. They had 2 kids..Robert and Modine.

J.L. married Ludie and had 3 kids..James[ who we all called Sonny], Elizabeth [who we all called Sister] and Robert Gary.

Joe was married to Irene and had 2 kids..Billy Joe and Barbara Ellen.

Joe later married Mozelle and had.. Paul Glenn, Eddie, Ruby, Dwight, Danny and Donna Kay.

Beatrice died in her early married life.

Fred married Gussie and had Donald Perry.

Julia [Aunt JU-JU] was married to Walter Essary. She had no children but raised his kids..June and Johnny.

Elizabeth [ Aunt Gee] was married to R.C. Landrum..no kids.

By the way you can blame my brother Jerry for the Aunts' nicknames. It seems that he could not pronounce Julia nor Lee[as Elizabeth was always called].

Mother and Elizabeth were very close. Aunt Gee[ for this writing] was very hard of hearing and Mother was always her "ears".

Actually, Pappa Hooper[Bob] had a hearing problem and wore a hearing aid. It was the kind with the box that looked like an old fashioned transistor radio with an ear plug. J.L. was hard of hearing, also.

Uncle Fred and Mother used to go to parties and dance. They both enjoyed dancing. I don't think the parties were very wild back then. Mother could tap dance very well. She could listen to a dance step and repeat it. [As for me, I have no rhythm for dancing.]

Mother and all the Hoopers had great voices for singing and did a lot of it.

Mamma Hooper and Pappa raised Billy Joe and Barbara Ellen after Joe and Irene divorced. My Mother was just a young girl when they came to live with them. Mother thought Barbara was her DOLL.

Uncle Ocie and Aunt Ju-Ju used to bring Mother clothes that they bought for her when they worked.

When times got hard and jobs got scarce, Joe and Ju-Ju went north to find work. They both settled in Gary, Indiana. Joe lived there the rest of his life.

Ju-Ju and Uncle Walter moved back to Dyersburg after retirement.

Mother used to tell me how 'skinny' she had been all her life. She said kids called her "kill-dee" at school. That was a skinny bird. It hurt her feelings. She never really got much weight on her. She was only 95 pounds when she got pregnant with the twins. She always thought that was the reason that Terry was still born. She swelled so badly that she could not close her hands.

She was unable to attend his funeral service because she was so sick. She said it was somewhat like a dream to her, because she had a beautiful baby boy, Jerry, and was not expecting to have two babies at one time. Daddy said that at each birth..Jerry's and mine, that Mother came out speaking in tongues. Mother was the closest to a Saint that I ever knew. I think that is why God has been so good to this family, Mother's prayers have been answered.

I know that Mother is dancing in heaven today.

BUDDY GIBSON REMEMBERS

Buddy tells this story.......

I was about 9 or 10 years old when this happened. Pam and I were visiting Granddaddy and Grandmamma [John A. and May Flower] for the summer; gave mom and dad a well deserved break for a few weeks. Most days I would go to the fields with Granddaddy and Pam would stay home with Grandmamma. On this particular day, for whatever reason, I ended up with Uncle Gene. [For those of you in the future that might be reading this, Uncle Gene was really my Great Uncle, my dad's [Bobby] Uncle, but Pam and I also called him Uncle Gene.] We were bailin' hay and I was lovin' it. Farming is so cool when you're not the one worried about the next rain, late frost, early frost, or drought or any of the other multitude of things that could go wrong. Then something happened, don't remember just what for sure , but I think the bailin' wire broke. Anyway, Uncle Gene and I got off the tractor. Uncle Gene went towards the front of the tractor and I went toward the bailer. In about a minute, Uncle Gene was back at the bailer with me. He looked down at the counter to see how many bails we had bailed so far. Answer,0. It seems that somebody had been playing with the counter and alllll those bails were going to have to be counted by going through the field and manually countin' 'em. To say that Uncle Gene was a little upset would be a great understatement. While he was still givin' me the "what for" Jerry showed up and asked what was going on. He got Uncle Gene to calm down, looked at the counter and asked, "Buddy, do you remember what number was on the counter before you changed it?"
"243" [I'm almost certain of the number, I remember it to this day.] Jerry grabbed the knob on the counter that I had been playin' with and turned it to 243 and told Uncle Gene "See Daddy, that's all you had to do." Uncle Gene looked at me and said " See what a college education will do for you."
After that , Jerry took me to where Granddaddy was and........we all lived happily ever after.

JOHN AUSTIN GIBSON--FAMILY

Buddy, thank you for this great picture.

They are left to right front....Mrs. Carson, Buddy Gibson, May Flower, Pam, John A. holding Joey Skelton, Vennie [Mamaw]: Back row...Darrell, Bobby, Peggy, Novaleen, Frank and Lamarr.

I remember that clock in the background. I heard that the shelf was added when the house was built to house the clock. [get a load of Mamaw's red shoes]