[Granville-Hough] 13 Jul 2009 - Gettie Shell

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:09:40 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: GettieShell - 13 Jul 2009


ôGRANDMA GETTIE & GRANPA (SHELBY) SHELL SULLIVANö (1999)

Children û Howard Lee died June 2, Æ68 û Clyde born 1918 û died 1965 û 
Hebert (Hub) born 1920 û died 1965 û Lois û Edward (ED) û Fred û 
All have passed on. Lois Blatt first started GrandmaÆs parties. 
She assigned 
everyone a dish to bring. This party took place and Charlie and Lois's 
in the house or yard, whatever weather permitted. Charlie hustled to get 
everything ready. You see, Lois and Grandma were both bad diabetics. 
Charlie saw that they ate properly. Even after Charlie lost Lois by 
death he saw after Grandma and Fred. Lois was in government service, and 
that is how she met Charlie.
After Grandma Gettie passed on, Connie and Shelby kept up the occasion, 
calling it Sullivan Reunion. Held in March closest to the 21st which was 
GrandmaÆs birthday. We remember the good and the bad. Connie and Shelby 
spent happy times since we lived to closest to each other. We ate syrup 
and biscuit 3 meals a day. The first margarine was in a plastic bag with 
a pill you mashed to mix up. Syble could really cook biscuits. I 
remember Clyde talking to me about GOD while he sat on a stump in fromt 
of that Jim Walter house. Clyde was blessed with baby in late life with 
Kelly, a joy to the family, then sad when she passed away. They had 
another tragedy with the loss of Kathy.
Connie and Shelby use to walk railroad tracks to see who could walk the 
rail fartherest. We all went swimming in (or at) the trestle (where the 
railroad crossed the creek û implied skinny dipping). No boys were there 
and Syble and Mama certainly did not know. Geraldine, remember the bop 
and the gitter/jitter bug? Larry Sue, Indian Dean, (Shorty), Sarah Lou, 
Marbeth: boy, you all let those skirts fly! Then tragedy in Feb 59: 
Shorty and Indian Dean killed in bus wreck. Then tragedy with Connie 
losing Thomas Ray in wreck. I kept Cindy and Rodney while Connie seen 
about (arranged) funeral. Later Connie md Frank Lyons û one daughter by 
this marriage û Shannon Lyons.
Picking cotton at Ma Vaughns, we sure had fun singing. Even Mavis, as 
pretty as I thought, picked. Connie and I have spent many nights and IÆm 
sure Carl Dennis in storm pit with coal oil (kerosene) lamps from one am 
til day light at Grandma GettieÆs. Lois would take Grandma riding on 
Sunday evening. Charlie liked the ballgames. Lois would take me to town 
(Collins). I would continue to go to B. AinsworthÆs Caf‰ for ice cream 
cones till we both had 3 each. Lois never cared how many toast I ate she 
always knew when I wanted more. Charlie and Lois had the first TV. They 
asked us over; we would watch GROUCH O MARK & CIGAR. Before this we 
listened to Grand Ole Opery on battery radio. We had no electric lights, 
(only coal) oil lamps.
We picked cotton. Grandma always beat me by a couple a (of) pounds at 
the scales. She carried 2 rows at a time, pulling her sack up and 
setting on it. She put cotton in her lap, then into her sack. She never 
got out into the sun without her bonnet. Mama (Sarah) and Sarah Lou 
prepared dinner and cleaned house, then came to the field. Daddy taught 
us to put soda out to corn in syrup can and tablespoon. (GWH: this was 
fertilizing (side-dressing) corn when it was about knee high with 
Chilean nitrate of soda, one tablespoon per stalk of corn. The gallon 
syrup can was what a child could carry handily.) Mama cooked dinner on 
Sunday for Connie and us. Bannan pudding special each Sunday after 
Church, by Mama.
Scares me still to remember that green pickup of daddyÆs: we were going 
to Collins, body of truck loaded with girls and passed that truck loaded 
with bales of cotton. God was with us not to wreck. We would amti-up and 
go to WillieÆs roller rink in Magee.
Daddy and Mamma helped us get started as Shelby (Sullivan) Steverson by 
baby sitting Ken and Glenda û a thank you to Larry, Janis, and Bobbie 
also during the summer months. First job I had was at J. P. Gambles 
Grocery and Caf‰. Then the B. Ainsworth Restaurant where the funeral 
home is now. Then at Dan Ford Drug Store with James Williams and Myrte 
Ferbon, both deceased now. (GWH: I do not personally know these places, 
but I think they were in Collins.)
Connie and I both have been blessed by GOD û she had open heart surgery 
when they knew very little about it medically. In 1975, I had a nervous 
breakdown, with many relapses, they now say chemical deficiency.
If you want to know more, ask Charlie. He has been sick. Dorthy Ann many 
others ask Charlie. Oh, yes, I remember Jean very well: how sweet she 
was to me taking me to supper while Ed worked the night shift. GOD BLESS 
û LOVE TO ALL!! Shelby (Sullivan) Steverson.

(GWH: This story could have been written by many of us who grew up on 
farms in the general area of SullivanÆs Hollow. We ate the same foods, 
had the same experiences, went to nearly identical churches, schools, 
and towns; and had the same tragedies. Those of us who survive only do 
so by the Grace of God. Geneticists may be able to glean some insight 
into the effects of inbreeding. Rather than say, as some Sullivans have, 
that there were no outward effects; one might suggest that inbreeding 
concentrates the effects of some inward traits such as chemical 
deficiencies, dependence on drugs, etc.
I have thought about the problem of identifying Sullivan traits. You 
could line up a random group of Southern whites and put Sullivans among 
them, then divide the group into from good looking to ugly and take the 
fifty percent who were better looking. You would have a higher 
percentage of Sullivans in that better looking group than in the other.
If you test that better looking group for intelligence and line them up 
from most intelligent to least, you would have more Sullivans in the top 
group. Then you take this top group to a bar and let them have all the 
whiskey they want to drink. Those who drink the most whiskey will 
include more Sullivans.
Then you observe the whiskey drinkers, and some will get abusive and 
belligerent. In that group, you have those with Sullivan traits. 
Good-looking, intelligent, cravers of alcohol, but who lose control when 
they get as much as they want.
You can devise your own test, but that would be mine.)