A FEW YEARS AGO, MY MOTHER PUT DOWN ON PAPER, STORIES OF HER AND BROTHER ALBERT’S CHILDHOOD.
I am going to write these in her words. She has told me some of these stories, and some I am reading for the first time. My mother and family did not have much growing up in a small town, but, they did have loving parents, good times and stories that will endure.
A cousin, Geraldine Harkless had given my mom some notes about her remembrances of my mom’s childhood. They were trying to verify some information. These notes are in Geraldine’s words…
“I don’t remember your first baby days, probably because we were living in Virginia with our aunt Gerry. We lived at 1327 Eagle St in a large three-story house, mom had set up apartments to make a living. Our apartment was on the first floor. Uncle Ruben was our boarder. After Aunt Gerry brought us back, mom had rented our apartment, so we had to go back to Virginia until our place was vacated. When we came back, Blanche came to us as a caregiver. “
I found in the 1940 census this very story. My mother was about 1 year old. That year, Blanche and Ruben married. She was 21 and he 52. She was an unwed mother at the time, living with family.
1940 census
Uncle Ruben as she called him, was the brother-in-law of Bill Harkless who married Kate Ewing. Kate’s daughters with Bill were Berneitha and Geraldine. Ruben’s wife Violet had died in 1930. Bill and Violet were siblings.
