Farm life at 949 Berne St.

As told by Beverly Greene King, Daughter of Catherine Smith Greene:

I remember Granddaddy trying to teach me how to milk their cow but I never got very good

at it.  Of course, I was very young.  I loved to watch him milk her.  I remember gathering eggs in the Chicken coup and was

so excited if I found one with two yolks.  I have never liked the white.  The texture makes me gag.

I remember helping Grandmother churn buttermilk or butter and that she used Honey instead of sugar making a cake or

cooking.  She put a little on Squash and Green beans and maybe some other vegetables.  Mother also did that and I do.

Just enough to help flavor it but not enough to taste it....carrots too.  I remember Grandmother slinging our Chicken for dinner

around by its neck and chopping off its head and feet and then plucking out the feathers and cutting it up into pieces to fry.

She felt bad about it because she was tender hearted but it was what a person did to have Chicken in the old days.  I remember

your Daddy (Bo) and probably Uncle Gerald building her a Greenhouse and all the beautiful plants she grew.  She was partial to

Violets.  She even had glass shelves in her dining room with African Violets on them.  I would help her water them on occasion.

Of course she had other flowers.  I noticed that Nancy has a terraced yard with beautiful flowers planted.  Grandmother and Granddaddy's

back yard was terraced on the side with rock walkways and flowers everywhere.  There was a big leaf mold concrete pit  at the

end of the driveway that originally was used to get under the cars to change the oil or work on them.  I remember your Granddaddy

in particular using it.  Later, Grandmother used it for the leaf mold pit and I am sure put eggshells and other stuff in with the leaves.

Actually there were plants everywhere, down the side of the house between the house and driveway, the part of the yard that wasn't

terraced.  You name it...............plants and bushes everywhere.  I imagine Grandmother did most of it after the children were grown up.

She had to work so hard to do everything in the old days.  I never new how she could manage it all.  I may have mentioned earlier the

old stove ran on wood and when she ironed she put the iron on the iron eye to heat it.  It took more than once to iron some things and

sometimes she could iron small things without putting it back on the stove eye for irons. By the way, the very back of the back yard was

fenced into a chicken yard and the Hen house by it.

My Grandparents' Home on Berne Street

As told by Michelle Nicholas, youngest daughter of Bo and Margaret Smith:

I remember spending the night there once as a small child.   I got to sleep in one of the tiny bedrooms and I could not believe that 6 children grew up there and shared the tiny bedrooms.  I remember seeing Granddaddy's dresser that was probably very old back then, and now it is in my house.  And I loved to touch all the porcelain trinkets that were on the floor to ceiling mantle that was in the living room.  They all seemed so fragile.  And now that mantle is in my living room.  It had beveled mirrors that did not make it from that house.  Maybe they were left in the attic.  These mirrors fascinated me.  And Grandmother had African Violets - shelves of them (I believe Daddy built the shelves for her).   She had a green thumb, and could just place a leaf in a dirt pot and another african violet would grow.  I was never able to do that.  And the front porch was so nice - it was screened and had a swing, I believe, or a big chair.  I remember the big driveway pit that Beverly spoke of - I think it was already a leaf container when I was old enough to remember.  The front yard was small and very shady with stepping stones and plants, and next door were the Garbutts, friends of my parents.    It seemed like a very warm house to me - built with love for the large family and added on to over the years by their loving son, my Daddy.