Happy Holidays! This post is just a quick little tribute to the precious lady who was my sweet and feisty great grandmother. My Mama Poole.
As I’m starting to pack away Christmas decorations, I thought it would be fun to tell you all about my Mama Poole and the stocking she made for me when I was a little girl. There were five children in our family, and one year my mom asked Mama Poole to crochet some stockings for us kids, knowing what treasured keepsakes they would be for us after Mama Poole left this earth. I hang mine from my banister each year in her memory. You might notice that it is crooked in its construction and wonder how skilled she really was with her hands. Well, although she had always been gifted in the art of crochet, by the time she made our stockings, she was quite elderly and also legally blind, so it’s remarkable that she did as well as she did on them! Those uneven lines are a sweet reminder of her love for us, and her best efforts in fulfilling my mother’s request.
We loved going to visit Mama Poole! She would always greet us at her screen door, having us enter in single file so she could get some “shugah” from each of us. She didn’t have a room full of toys to offer us, but it didn’t matter because Mama Poole had something way more fun than toys. Mama Poole had a giant cluster of decorative glass grapes! Oh yes! Glass. Grapes. And how those grapes never broke in our careless hands, I have no idea, but she was not the least bit worried about us playing with them. We would also look at all the many photographs under the glass of her coffee table as she would tell us about each occasion and all the loved ones pictured. Then we’d go play “telephone” in her hallway which featured an old-fashioned phone nook and bench. What fun that was!
When our visits came to a close, Mama Poole would send us home with a paper sack full of moon pies telling my mother, “Take these since you’ve got all those kids to feed.” I don’t know how nutritious the moon pies really were in her efforts to help “feed us”, but coming from a woman who had a sweet tooth like no other and believed wholeheartedly in eating dessert first (especially if it were Mississippi mud cake), I guess she considered the moon pie an essential food group for children to grow up on. I suppose I have Mama Poole to thank for my own sweet tooth now, ha!
My goodness, I miss her! If there are moon pies and Mississippi mud cakes in heaven, I know who brought them!
What a sweet story! She seemed like she treasured her family!!
That she did! And we still treasure her. ❤️
Perhaps, I can find the stocking. The grapes are another matter! However, I have seen glass grapes in flea markets and I always remember Mama Poole’s. There was also a corner type shelf filled with countless whatnots. She let you all play with those ….there were many little figurines…a child’s magical pretend store! Maybe Papa Poole built that since he worked as a cabinet maker in a local manufacturing company.
I’m sorry to say I don’t remember the corner cabinet. ❤️ But I’ll be on the lookout for glass grapes at flea markets. 😉
I love this post! I have sweet memories of Mama Poole also. I had forgotten about the pictures under the coffee table, but I’ll never forget the grapes! I wonder where my stocking is?!?
And I wonder where those glass grapes are!
She was such a unique and special grandmother! Perhaps, her character and love for family was best exemplified when as a 16 year old, she married my grandfather….a widower with 2 little girls under the age of 4. My mother was one of those little girls. Mama Poole said on several occasions that her own mother said, “Lucille, don’t you marry Jim if you can’t be a good mother to those children.” She could not have been a better mother if they had been her own biological children! She was very deserving of the name those little girls called her… “Mama.” She showed no difference between these 2 step children and her own biological daughter born years later. These were depression year times, and life was hard and filled with constant work to keep one’s family afloat. She didn’t complain. She was actually very talented in her younger years and when her sight was better. I have seen her take a piece of fabric, cut out a dress without a pattern, and sew it into a beautiful creation! My cousin and I were those dresses! She crocheted capes, scarves, doilies, little girls’ purses, doll dresses, and the list goes on! Today, we remember her remarkable talent, but in those days, it was considered resourcefulness….to survive hard years. Yet, she did so without complaint! She was fearless, brave, and spunky…rolled into a loving and caring woman. She had that red hair for a reason, plus she loved to wear red clothing with her red hair!! I could recant countless stories revealing this side of her, but those are probably best loved and shared in family gatherings…filled with laughs and sweet memories!
Thank you for a trip down memory lane!
What sweet memories, Mom! I should have let you write the post!