WASH AND VENNIE

This is a letter from Wash to Vennie when he was visiting his sisters in Missouri.
They had to take the Ferry across the Mississppi River to get there.


I don't have many stories about my Gibson Grandparents. Papaw died way before I was born and Mamaw died when I was a young girl. Wash was a very light hearted jokster and Vennie a very serious lady. Times were tough back then. To my knowledge, Wash had sisters Fannie, Dorothy and Jenny and a brother Lem. Vennie had a brother Lafayette[Fate]. They may have had more brothers and sisters. I remember Uncle Fate and his wife Aunt Mallie. They lived in Dyersburg.


Wash took his family to visit Uncle Lem once because Uncle Lem had bought a radio. They all sat around and stared at the radio while Uncle Lem worked the dials on it. There was not much to be heard except static, their being so far away from any major stations, so Wash took the family home. On the way home he said "we might could have heard something if Lem would a quite twistin' them ears". Radio was very new then.


Vennie was a very social lady. She enjoyed keeping up with all the "news" of the family. By the way, all the family lived in the same community, Hurricane Hill. [No one stubbed their toe in the night without everyone knowing about it by 7am.] Most of them went to the HH Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was different from the FIRST PRESBYTERIAN downtown Dyersburg, much less formal. During those times, life centered around family and church..