Aunt Zippy was so named because she ran around all day singing ‘Zip-a-dee-do0-dah, Zip-a-dee-day, my oh my, what a beautiful day.’ She was my Father’s youngest sister. The song was featured in the Walt Disney movie ‘Song of the South,’ an animated film released in 1946 and still popular in 1947. I also have an Aunt named Weezy. One of us kids couldn’t say Louise so Weezyshe became. Aunt Weezy was married to my good looking Uncle John my Father’s brother.
My Uncle Dave, another one of my father’s brothers had a wall-eye. This scared the shit out of us kids. We couldn’t tell when he was looking at us or not. I had a bigger problem, I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me nor could I hear if he was talking to me. I didn’t freak out though, because I could tell my brothers were scared of him also. My brothers and I tried not to act scared and tried to answer his questions. His wife was Aunt Avis and she was the coolest Aunt anybody could ever have. She was not a busybody and she was sincere.
Whenever we had a family reunion we rented out a park and we took up a LOT of tables. I have a picture somewhere of the word Reunion on a banner spelled wrong. ‘Runion’ was painted on the banner and one of my Aunts holding the bottom of the banner and smiling.
One year my paternal Grandmother said not to get her a gift because she couldn’t buy that many gifts anymore. Apparently her list had grown to 200 plus. This is the Grandmother that told the black light bible stories. In the 1960’s she got breast cancer and had one breast removed. So she got a fake boob and wore it in her bra. She took it out very often and showed anyone that asked about it.
On my mother’s side my maternal Grandmother had a brother-in-law named St.Clair and his wife (her sister) was my Great Aunt Margie. One day my brothers and I were playing in the mud in the back yard and we noticed a strange car in the driveway. It was my Great Uncle St.Clair and my Great Aunt Margie. Apparently they wanted me to come stay with them for a week. So I did. I had lots of adventures in just one week.
I remember going to the dentist with my Great Aunt Margie and then driving through a park on the way back to her house. She gave me some money to get some Popsicles. So I got in this long line and by the time I got to be waited on I had forgotten what I was supposed to get so I got something else instead. So she was real nice about that and said not to eat it all at once. Well we all know what happened. So that was an adventure. The first night I was there I couldn’t get to sleep so I sat at the top of the stairs and she walked by and noticed me. She came up and taught me the prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep….” So that was an adventure because up until that time I had never slept upstairs before. The next adventure was when she took me to my Great Uncle St.Clair’s place of business. He was an architect that specialized in underground houses. He had an employee that was Asian and I played with the Asian architect’s children.
Another adventure was playing with the neighborhood children until I heard my Great Aunt Margie calling me inside. The last adventure was on the day we were leaving to take me home. My Great Aunt Margie had bought some goodies to take to my parents and brothers. One goodie was marshmallows. One of the neighborhood playmates convinced me to open the bag and take some out because a few wouldn’t be noticed. But I went back in to the bag so many times that my Aunt noticed and took me on her lap and explained why it wasn’t a good thing to do. She was so nice about it that I didn’t cry nor did I ever do anything like that again.
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