Ada Swasey Rogers, a true matriarch

Happy birthday to a beloved grandmother, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers, a.k.a. Gummy.

I posted on her birthday in 2015, here.
and the year before that on her birthday as well, HERE!

I talk about her when referring to other ancestors frequently, because one whole tree of my family is the link of her ancestors (Swasey Family Tree)...and another one for my father and his father on the George Rogers Tree.  Then on my mother's side, I only have one tree, that of the Booth family, because I didn't know my grandfather(s) nor even my great-grandfather on my maternal side.

I remember my older cousins, Claudette and Sandra were often staying at Gummy and Poppy's house in the mid to late 40s after we moved to Houston in 46.  I sometimes would stay with Gummy (while my parents went out, usually in an afternoon.) Claudette and Sandra's dad was first very sick after WW II, and then he died, and then their mother married another man...so they stayed with their grandparents a lot of the time.

I had a baby sister, who probably took naps easily.  But me, no way, because I was 5 or 6 by then.

Gummy was plum tuckered out one afternoon, and sat in a rocker, while Claudette and Sandra and I were supposed to go to sleep on "pallets" of quilts on the floor.  They were beautiful hand sewn cotton quilts, probably a couple made by my mother, and probably some made by Gummy herself.

She rocked in her rocker, and I wanted to talk.  She asked me to lie there quietly.  She said "I just need 40 winks."

I said "What's 40 winks?"

And the answer was "Count to 40 and I'll be rested"

"I don't think I can count to 40," I answered.  "I can count to 10 though."

You know how the rest of the conversation went, and I got my way, not falling asleep at all.  And eventually I did quieten down and let my poor grandmother rest.

I also remember when they built an addition on the back of the little house.  Poppy was always good with carpentry, and his son Chauncey lived with them in the 40s, until maybe in the 50s they built Chauncey a house on the lot right next to theirs. about the time he got married finally.  I remember before the addition and afterward.

Once I was eating breakfast at their big round oak table, with lion paw feet.  I wasn't at all interested in some grits, which are a southern thing for breakfast, but somehow I didn't like them.

Gummy encouraged me "They'll stick to your ribs."

"I don't want them stuck to my ribs." as I looked inside my dress or blouse to make sure my ribs were still un-sticky.

They had an ice box in those days.  A real box where food was kept cool with a big cube of ice.  The ice man delivered ice several times a week, and would put it right in the nice wood box.  But there was a very interesting part of that ice box that I liked.  A tube ran down from the bottom of it right into the floor, where the water from the melted ice would flow out underneath the kitchen floor into the crawl space under the house.  Houston houses were built of wood, and the floors were usually hardwood, about a foot or so above the ground.  I was someone who liked to look at things and figure out how they worked, even then!

I don't think Gummy ever learned to drive.  And I was a young mother the last time I visited her. in 1964. I so enjoyed talking with her about everything, politics, mothering, plants, homes etc.  Wherever you are now Gummy, I send you all my love.

Today's quote:

“For our sake and yours,” she implored her audience, “forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light.”  Toni Morrison