Visiting Grandmother in the 1930's

On Tuesdays when I visit mom, I try to get her to remember things from her childhood. This week she remembered visiting her grandparents in Clinton. They lived in Brookhaven and took day trips to Clinton to visit her maternal grandparents. I remember their house because when I was a kid we would visit one of mom's aunts who lived in the old home place.

Mom remembered stopping at the Redwood Inn on Terry Road on the way back to Brookhaven. If they behaved at their grandparent's, they could get a foot long hot dog or a cold soda.

Nowadays there are many ways to go from Clinton to Brookhaven but back in the 1930's the main roads were Clinton Boulevard and Terry Road. Mom said the pavement ended around Terry and was gravel from there to Brookhaven. She said sometimes they would take a back road short cut that went from Terry cross country to Clinton. She didn't think it was Springridge Road or Midway but maybe McRaven or Maddox. She said that it was a narrow, dirt road.

I asked how all seven children fit in the car. She said they sat in the front and back seats and there was a system of taking turns sitting in the front, back, and by the windows. She said she didn't care that much about sitting by the window because her hair was cut in a short bob and the wind would whip her hair into her eyes and mouth.

Corona, mom's mom, was the youngest of a large family. My uncle John said the Smith family first lived in Brownsville which is down Tinnin Road outside of Clinton. There is nothing there now but at one time there was a schoolhouse.

When I was in high school I asked my great-uncle Sam, one of Corona's brothers, about the brick streets in Clinton. I thought the bricks had been there since the Civil War. Uncle Sam said he remembered when the streets were paved with bricks in the 1920's. And he told me about the first time he saw a car. He went to Mississippi College and lived in the dorm. He said the students had to cook their own meals over the fire in their rooms. Uncle Sam was a teacher, principal, and administrator in Louisiana.

This has rambled more than I thought it would but I want to record these memories. Mom is the last of her siblings. I never knew my grandparents. I would like to have these to read over again.