Book of Me: Clubs and Societies

When I was a little girl in elementary school, I was a member of the Blue Birds. They are affiliated with the Camp Fire Girls. I do not remember anything beyond being given a little blue bird pin and being in the school lunchroom for the meetings. The lady that was over our group was also the lady that took me home from school as my mama didn't have a driver's license at the time. Visit this site to learn a bit about the Blue Birds. I had the second color pin, light blue, shown on the site.

When I was in the eleventh grade, I joined something called Junior Achievement. It was geared toward developing interest in starting one's own business. We made things to sell. I was terrified of the drill press, but that was one of the things that we used to created food trays. Click here to learn more about Junior Achievement.

I didn't finish out the school year in the JA program as it conflicted with my most favorite show's airing night. I was hopelessly addicted to the weekly Monday night tears caused by Little House on the Prairie. Our JA meetings were on Monday nights and I ultimately gave up the program so that I could watch Little House on the Prairie.

I am not a member of any clubs or organizations at this time. However, I would dearly love to be able to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the American Revolution. I have always loved history and to be able to link my own family history to the history of this country means a great deal to me. I believe that I could learn a great deal being a part of these organizations and it would give me the opportunity to do my part to preserve the heritage of our patriot families.

Are you a part of any clubs or organizations? Please tell me all about it!

Book of Me: Our First Home

David and I first lived as husband and wife in a little, yellow, four room house in Iva, South Carolina. It was located on Green Street. I will take you on a walk-through from the front door.

The house opened into a hallway. Straight ahead was the door to the only bathroom. Before one reached the bathroom door, there was a single door to the left and a single door to the right. The door to the right entered our bedroom. This was a decent-sized room, as were the rooms in most of the mill houses that I have lived in. The door to the left went to the rest of the house, opening into the living room. If you took a right in the living room, went through the door ahead, you were in the dining room, which also had the second entry door to the house along the right wall. Walk straight through the dining room and you would enter the kitchen. The entry into the washroom and the walk-in pantry were to the right.

This kitchen was very special. I am less than average height, being just shy of 4' 11" tall. My late father-in-law, bless his heart, bore my lack of height into consideration when remodeling this house for us. He had the carpenter visually measure my height (without me knowing it) and then build the kitchen to work for me, not against me as every other kitchen in my life has done. The cabinets and counters were done lower than average so that it wouldn't cause me discomfort to use the kitchen. Papa Bruce (what we called David's daddy) knew that I loved to cook and he wanted to make it as easy as possible for me to do so and to take care of his son's appetite.

Near the back entry, there had been an old well. Knowing that he wanted grand-babies, and we wanted to give them to him, he had to do something to secure that well so that his future grand-babies wouldn't fall into it. His solution was to cap it and pour a patio over it. I think that he was a pretty clever guy. The funny thing is, once he found out that I was pregnant, he bought a house closer to his house for us to move into. His grandchildren never set foot in that little yellow house on Green Street.

Most of the houses that David and I have lived in over the years have been either torn down for new construction or for a parking lot or they burned down. I have no idea if our first house exists anymore, but the house in which we lived when our first son was born is gone as is the house in which we lived when our second son was born.

No matter which house I recall, there are some fun, happy memories attached. Sometimes I really wish that we could go back to that first little house, but so much has changed, and we don't have Papa anymore. That puts a touch of sadness to some of the memories. Though it wasn't the first house that David lived in on his own, it was mine, and it will always hold special memories for me and bring a smile when I think of it.

Book of Me: First Day of School

   
I do not remember what type of weather we were having that day, but there are parts of the first day of school that I will never forget. My mama had bought me lots of cute little dresses and one of them was green. I had long, curly, auburn hair. She pulled the sides back and put in a barrette to hold it back and let the rest hang down loosely. I wore baby blue cat-eye glasses that had to be customized to make room for my very long eyelashes. Regular ear pieces were too short!

I was scared to death.

Suzanne Gunter, May 1973

Mama took me to school. It was Homeland Park Elementary School in Anderson, South Carolina. Though I don't remember the trip to the school, I am sure that we walked because my mama didn't have a driver's license until I was in about the fourth grade or so. The school wasn't very far from our house, but we had to walk along what was a major road in our town at the time (an important thing to remember later on in this story!). I didn't want to go. She took me into the school and told me that she would be waiting outside when I came out. She told me later that she didn't know what she would have done had I come out of the school early and didn't find her on the porch where she said she'd be. She walked me to my classroom, me being upset the whole way. With the exception of one day at a daycare center with my twin brothers, I had never been away from mama for a long period of time. This was a first. I was freshly six years old.

I pitched such a fit that she took me into the bathroom that all of the first grader classes had at the back of the room. I know that I got a talking-to, but I do not remember if a spanking was a part of that or not. Even if it were, the rest of what happened that morning has successfully blocked out anything that my mama could have done to me that morning!

Mama left and I refused to sit at a desk. I didn't know those other kids and I didn't know that "mean old lady" that was at the big desk, either. I didn't want to. I just wanted to be back home. Things were scary there at times, too, but at least it was something that I knew. I sat in the floor as close to the escape hatch door as I could. Standing behind me was a stand that held those great, big writing tablet things that teachers use to show little ones how to print.

The teacher, Miss Cromer, a taller-than-me, skinny, red-head that seemed a hundred years old to me, but was possibly only a young lady in reality, stood up. I don't know what she said or what she was going to do, but she stood up and it scared me. I scooted backwards there on the floor and set that stand to swaying and then it fell. She walked towards me. She bent over and swatted me on the thigh. This stranger was hitting me. I assume that she stood her stand back up. She returned to her seat. Once she was situated, I marched my sassy little self up to her desk, hands on my hips and said in my little girl voice, "YOU BIG DUMMY!"

That didn't go over too well.

The next thing I knew, she had me bent over her stool, the one that she sat on to read to us, with my backside to the classroom for all to see, and was paddling me. I was mad and humiliated and probably scared, too. A paddling at school meant a spanking once I got home. I don't remember anything else that happened that day, not even what happened once I got home.

Mama told me later that another little girl in the class, Angie, was so scared by my fit that she ran out of the classroom and all the way back home. She had to cross that major road to get from the school to her house. She could have been killed. Thankfully she wasn't. She's probably a grandma by now. Eventually, it was Angie's mama that took me and my brothers to school and back home. Her mama was also my Bluebirds leader.

I survived that first day, but not without scars. I am terrified at just the thought of public speaking or doing anything in front of a crowd. I am a behind-the-scenes person all the way thanks to the humiliation of that moment in first grade up there on that yellow stool with my behind to the world.

Book of Me: Favorite Color

This week's prompt is - Favourite Colour

Do you have a favourite colour? and if so why?
Do you like vibrant colours or darker colours?
Do you associate anyone with a particular colour? If so who and why ?
Does your favourite colour reflect your personality?


I have a very hard time pinning down a favorite color. My favorite color really depends on what I'm needing the color for. My absolute favorites are black, pink, and red, but I also love earth tones. Yellow, red, and orange flowers are absolutely beautiful, but so is a sweet pink rose and a long awaited bluebonnet. In my clothing, I tend to lean more towards darker and quieter colors. In furniture and household woodwork, I prefer the darker woods over the lighter woods.

I often battle depression, so black would be a good reflection of my personality. All of my pants are black. Green, however, has always been the color that looks best on me. I rarely wear it, though. I never seem to be able to find a shade of it that I like when I've gone shopping for clothes.

I associate three colors with three people that I love very much. These colors are associated with them forever in my mind because they are their favorite colors. Our oldest daughter loves red; our youngest son loves yellow; and our baby girl has always had a thing for purple. I grew up not being too terribly fond of yellow or purple (and orange was just downright icky to me), but my youngest two have taught me the beauty of yellow and purple. Together, they make one of my favorite flowers.

David says his favorite color is rainbow. That works!

Book of Me: Memory Board

1981-1982 Sweet 16  

Summer of 1981

David was prompted to write to me one morning by an unseen force that we believe to have been Heavenly Father. He was finally convinced that he needed to do it and he wrote to me. I was very surprised to get a letter from him. We spent awhile writing and then I got a letter saying that about the time I got the letter, he would be pulling down my driveway. That was how it happened, too!

First Date

Our first official date was on my 16th birthday, 18 August 1981. It was a Tuesday.. We went to see the movie "Endless Love". The song "Endless Love" has been our song since then.



Eleventh Grade at Crescent High School

I started the eleventh grade just after my sixteenth birthday. It was the year that I had Mrs. Anna Dean Pennington for US History. I still remember what she put on the board that first day of class: 1588. She said to remember it, that it would be on the final exam. I did and it was...I still remember it to this day, some thirty-two years later. It was the year of the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British navy.

Health News

During Christmas vacation, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed. It was a very embarrassing time.
It was typical at the time do to pregnancy tests on all pubescent females prior to surgery to make sure
the girl wasn't pregnant. I wasn't pregnant, of course, and my mama was pretty adamant with them that
I was a good girl. David came to see me at the hospital. As he was leaving from his visit at the end of
visiting hours, he stepped into the elevator and I said "I love you" to him for the first time. The elevator
doors closed and he couldn't get them to open again and the guard wouldn't let him come back up in
the elevator to see me because visiting hours were officially over. It was just like the "The End" moment
in a movie that you didn't want to ever end.

News Headlines

The fifty-two Americans held hostage in Iran were released. President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. Pope John Paul II was also shot that year.  Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman appointed as a US Supreme Court Justice. Natalie Wood, the adorable little Susie from the original Miracle on 34th Street, died. Lady Diana and Prince Charles were married.

Luke and Laura got married on General Hospital. I watched this soap opera as well as One Life to Live
and All My Children after growing up watching The Doctors, Days of Our Lives and Another World.

For Your Eyes Only was a movie that played that year. We never saw it, but the song was popular and
we liked it. David wrote "For Your Eyes Only" on the outside of one of the letters that he sent to me
which, of course, prompted my mama to need to read it. Thankfully, it wasn't a smoochy letter. :)

I had many favorite songs when I was sixteen. Some of my favorite songs from 1981 and 1982 were:
Endless Love, Jessie's Girl, One That You Love, Kiss on My List, and Open Arms.

Driver's License

I was 16 years old when I first went to take the driver's license exam. I aced the written test, scoring
100%. However, the driving part of the test wasn't as successful. Parallel parking and backing up were
not my strong suits and are not to this day. When I had to do the parallel parking for the exam, the
examiner said that I hit the pylons. I never felt it hit and was convinced that he had a gas bubble or
something that popped as I was approaching the pylons. Anyway, I didn't get the license that day and
didn't try again until I was 18 years old, at which time I passed both tests just fine and got my license.

Will You Marry Me?

Friday, 1 January 1982 - David proposed to me on the steps of Flat Rock Baptist Church, Anderson SC.

The Junior Prom

We bought the tickets for the prom during my eleventh grade year, but at pretty much the last moment,
I decided that I just couldn't bear going. I was very shy. Poor David was just out all of that money,
because we couldn't get a refund on the tickets. I had a better time with him away from the prom than I
ever would have had being at the prom with a room full of people that were mean to me more often than
not.



Credits:
News Headline References: Like Totally 80s
http://www.liketotally80s.com/80s-capsules-1981.html

Book of Me: Daily Routines

While reading a Geneabloggers newsletter this past week, I found out about a project that started last August. Although I am late (as usual!), I am going to jump in. It is my hope to go back and write for the weeks that I've missed, while hopefully keeping up with it from this point forward.

Please click the button below to join in. It is called "Book of Me, Written by You".




This week's prompt is - Daily Routines

Do you have a daily routine?
Did your parents? Grandparents?
Why did they (or you ) have this routine?
Where did this routine take place?
Structure - Is this important to you? or your family?

At this point in my life, unless college is in session, I do not really have any particular routine. When it is, I get up at 5am and take my shower, wake up the kids so that they can get ready for school, and I lay back down until it is time to leave. I'm the only driver in the house, so for the most part, I have to take everyone wherever they need to go. Depending on whether it is Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday, we leave the house at either 8:30am or 9am. For the most part, I don't have to retrieve anyone from the school until 5pm. The work-study hours vary, so some days I have to go back around 9pm to pick up one of them.

David and I have always been night people, so on non-school days, we get up when we're tired of sleeping and sleep when we're tired of being awake. :) We function much better as night people, but are generally forced to be day people, which means that we aren't able to do things when we're at our best.

My parents had varying schedules. My daddy was a swing-shift worker at Owens-Corning Fiberglas for years. My mama has been a school bus driver for thirty years. She was out the door to work at about the time I had to get up to get ready to catch my own school bus. She got home probably about an hour after I got home from school.

My grandparents, all four of them, were raised for the most part by farmers and were up before the chickens every day.

While I think that structure is important in some things, I do not think that our lives should be scheduled to the nth degree. There needs to be room for spontaneity without throwing everything off balance. There needs to be freedom to change it up on occasion. That being said, I am also at a point in my life where I am not very good with change. I like to know what is going to happen and when. Surprises and I are not close friends.

***

What are the routines of your life?

Book of Me: I Was Born

I was born during the summer of 1965 at the Anderson Memorial Hospital in Anderson, South Carolina. All of my surviving children were born there, too.

I was born a month early. My mama and her also-pregnant, oldest sister were taking a walk and my mama fell into a hole, which put her into labor. I can imagine they were quite the sight, one pregnant woman in a hole with another one trying to pull her out!

Aside from my mama, me, and the nurses, the only other person in attendance at my birth was Dr. Herbert Blake. My aunt was at the hospital with my mama, but no one was allowed in the delivery room back then other than the mother and medical personnel, not even daddies. As I understand it, my daddy wasn't at the hospital for the births of any of his children. Times were different back then.

I weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces when I was born, contrasted with my own firstborn who weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces. My mama fought during the process and because of this, her blood pressure went through the roof and she passed out. I was born at 9:55pm on a Wednesday night. When mama was conscious again, she was afraid that I was still in there and that she wasn't done yet. My aunt let her know that I had been born, much to her relief.

I had little, if any, hair when I was born. I was bald for so long, people would tease my mama and ask her, "When are you taking him for a haircut?" even though they were aware that I was a little girl. Finally, I got hair, and it was all curls. My daddy said that it was so curly that you couldn't tell which end of my hair was attached to my head. That may be an exaggeration, but it was pretty curly. It was auburn, a little redder at times than others. Like most white babies, I was born with blue eyes, but ultimately they turned brown. They have golden flecks in them.

I wasn't a twin, but there was a little boy baby born the same day that I was. Mama saw him in the nursery and thought we could have been twins. Really, I think that she had wished he was her baby instead of me. So, somewhere out there is a male me. My younger brothers are twins and our family has a rich history of twins. I was standing behind the wrong door when twins were passed out and never had them. I think that it would have been an exhaustingly fun adventure, though!