I had the idea of starting this blog so that all family members would hopefully contribute stories and pictures. My kids love to hear family lore that I just take for granted.
So I'm going to start with me.
Because in my world, it is all about me.
Here I am with Dad, Scott and Richard: Christmas, 1959. I'm the beauty standing behind the little urchin on the rocking horse (by the way, I never remember getting a rocking horse for Christmas). As you've probably figured out, I was the only girl and the middle child. Thus, the happy expression. Can you feel the love? Now that I think about it, Richard doesn't look too thrilled either. Nor does Dad. You know, the only truly happy face seems to belong to Scott.
Here we are again. Notice the Studebaker in the background, please. Please try not to notice the white socks Richard and I are wearing.
So there are the three siblings.
We were a totally ordinary family of the 1950's, with a homemaker mom, a father who worked long hours, and three normal, aggravating, smart ass kids. The thing that may have set us apart was the extended family. My mother had ten siblings: six sisters and four brothers. All of the sisters but one lived within a couple of blocks of each other. Our house was built by my grandfather, Robert Hawkins, and we lived there all our lives. Mom finally moved around 1990.
Next door was Gladys and her husband John Fields. They were childless, and they seemed like grandparents to us although they were only a few years older that Mom and Dad.
A couple of houses down from them was Emma and her husband Walt Hughes. They had five children, but somehow I never really knew them. I think they were up and married by the time I was ten or so.
Across the street from Emma was Polly and her husband Carl Morris, and their two children Pat and Jim. Jim married Frances and moved into a tiny house across the street for a few years. Around 1959, they moved to Mableton. I was very close to their daughter Sue, who was less than a year younger than me.
Grace and her husband Doyle lived behind Emma, on a dead end street. They had two children, "Buddy" and Joan.
Mom's oldest brother, Robert, died of tuberculosis which he contracted while serving in Africa during World War II. He was twenty-three.
Frank was the black sheep of the family. He spent some of his post-war years in Alaska, where he had been stationed during the war. When he moved back to Georgia, he lived with us for awhile. He married his second wife an they had a daughter. AFter their divorce, Frank moved back to Alaska, around 1964. He had married a third time by then. He stayed in Alaska until about 1985 or so when he moved back to Georgia.
Bill married Helen, and they had a son, Bill Jr. Helen had a son from a previous marriage. They moved to Florida for awhile, then back to Georgia.
Doug married Betty, they had four children.
So there's the Hawkins family, if only a brief outline. There are interesting stories to tell. Tune in frequently.
Everybody has a story to tell.
