Mary Ellen Myers

Daylight saving time started during WWII to save electricity. The whole country, during that time, was very patriotic - growing “Victory Gardens”, conserving gasoline, driving old cars, etc. In my childhood, when we got a little dog we named it Victory - called Vicky.

When daylight saving time was first changed, each county in VA set its own time. In 1956 - ‘57, we could go to church, drive about an hour to Columbia (my parents) just in time for lunch!

When we had a baby, Mama would keep the older children in Columbia with her. She was driving somewhere with little David, he shouted, “See de beans!” Those were Bill’s farming days.

Once in a while, we would spend the night in Columbia. We took the children to see my old fashioned grandparents. Granddaddy Proffitt had a thick mustache. As I was helping Jeff say his prayers at night and suggested that we pray for granddaddy, he asked, “Yes, but who made his feathers?”

Bill had field corn planted beside the driveway. Once Jeff peddled up the driveway, pulled over a stalk of corn and was enjoying eating it! It was not unusual to see him bent over eating strawberries in our back yard garden.

Nancy was a baby who couldn’t join in back yard play yet. When, after a long fun summer of playing outside with Jeff, David and Jeanie walked up the driveway to catch the bus. Lonesome little Jeff laid down in the dirt and cried.

As we tried to have devotion and sang, “Into my heart, come in today, come in to stay.“, Jeanie asked, “Why do we say come in Tuesday?”

Sometimes Bill would let one of the children sit on his lap to steer the car down the driveway. Once our neighbor, Colin Wood, called to ask if we knew Jeanie was driving down the driveway.

When Nancy was just beginning to add a column of numbers, I suggested to check her answer on daddy’s adding machine. When she ha entered all the numbers, I said go ahead and pull the lever for the answer. She exclaimed, “Does it know the answer already?!”

David, age seven or eight, liked to get up and go outside early in the morning to feed his calf. The problem was the door didn’t automatically unlock. He asked me once, “What can I do when the door is locked and I’m outside?” I sort of teasingly said, “You could always hoe in the garden.” Amazingly, we looked out one morning and there he was hoeing away!

Some things I remember about Jeanie’s children, since I saw them more often, Little Kristen wondered in the Twenty Third Psalm, why they said, “Lead me beside distilled water.”

Kristen and little Chase were good buddies. When she went to BJU to college Chase really missed her. Someone mentioned what Kristen was studying, Chase exclaimed, “You LEARN at college?!”

David McD, among all the other ministries he does, goes to a jail to witness to the men. Jeanie said one night before he went, they were sitting in a restaurant. Hope asked in a loud voice, “When does daddy go to jail?”

Jeanie’s boys really enjoy sports. Jeanie taught Home School. As she worked with the older children, Nolan was sitting on her lap. He pointed to all the “O’s” in the reading book and called them balls.

Jeanie said when Nolan was about 5, they were at a Fourth of July celebration. Someone asked, “Who wants to shoot skeet?” Nolan answered, “I do - who is Skeet?”

I surely would like to know more about Nancy’s children who live in MI. I do remember when Sandell was probably about two years old, we all went to the zoo. We picked up a stroller for Sandell so he wouldn’t be tired from all that walking. I think he PUSHED the stroller every where we went!

I don’t remember all the details but when Nancy’s family lived in Mebane, there was a snake in the back yard. Little Karen, who must have been three or four, was leaning over looking at the snake and saying,”Sweet snake, sweet snake.”

When we moved to Boston area for Bill to go to school for Honeywell, someone gave us a dog named Cindy. Nancy was the only one home - not in school - so Cindy was good company for her. Once Cindy disappeared, and when Nancy called her, a tiny little girl came over saying her name was
Cindy = new friend.

When we moved to Elm City, NC, Granddaddy Myers gave us a nice, little, black dog - half Collie and half Shepherd. For fun, we sometimes called her a “Collard!”.

I remember, especially, David and I enjoying Red Skelton’s program on TV. One of his characters was “Clemdedittlehopper“. Thus, David named her “Clem“. Clem, because Nancy was home longer, sorta became Nancy’s dog; she trained her to do a few things.

Well, when Nancy left home to work, she picked up a dog at the SPCA and named it “Spy” - his tag read 007. When Nancy came home with Spy, Clem actually stuck up her little, black nose!

I guess we ended up keeping Spy for Nancy some. Bill had a garden and, once, in a while someone would drive in the edge of it when they tried to park in the little barn. SO Bill took a little stob he had used on a long ago electric fence. When Spy saw that stob, he hid and wouldn’t come out. I guess he had been shocked enough or had a good memory.

When we bought the house in Elm City from the builder who built across the road. His little boys, at first, felt our place was home. On Sunday afternoons, there was often a ball game in the backyard. Of course, those little boys came over. Not understanding ball games at all, when one little hit a ball, the others yelled, “Go home” he began to cry and headed home across the road!

When Ed Erwin came as pastor to Elm City, he asked that each of us tell him something to remember us by. I told him I was Mary Ellen from near Walton’s Mountains in Va. (for younger children, Mary Ellen was a T.V. character who lived on Walton’s Mountain) He teased me but didn’t forget my name.

When we first moved to Elm City, Bill would cut down trees for friends, saw them into logs and bring them home for the fireplace. Once forgetting to hook well the trailer to the car, he saw the trailer of logs pass him as he traveled home. Fortunately no car was coming; the trailer dumped the logs into a field. David and Ruth Ann, in high school at the time, happened to come by and helped him reload.

Jeff was always very interested in music. On Sunday afternoons, he took guitar lessons via the TV. He often listening to music in his room. Once I wanted to tell him something, I knocked and he didn’t answer the door. When I opened the door, there he was with the sheet over his head, ear plugs in his ears and beating time to the music.

Also, as a little boy, he took some of these late night TV shows too seriously. Once, he ordered some “Snake Oil!”

When Jeff got his driver’s permit, he and Nancy went off to Wilson. He ended up having a very minor accident and wasn’t looking forward to telling Bill. WELL, Bill came home from work in Rocky Mt. and told us he had had an accident!

When I was driving home from Rocky Mt., I turned on the hazard lights when I saw a minor accident. Reaching home, I could not turn them off! I asked Martha, our neighbor, if she knew how to turn them off. She turned her hazard lights on - then neither one of us could turn off our lights. SO she called the car dealer and he said, “Just push the switch in”. That worked!

When Jeanie was away from home to work, on her birthday we took her a cake and we all stayed in a motel. We needed an extra bed so the attendant brought in a roll-away bed. One leg was wobbly so he stuck the ash tray under it. (Now this was the day when smoking or drinking was about the lowest you could get. All these weird drugs they talk about now were unknown to us.)

Jeanie did have to get up early the next day to go to work. Suddenly, she came out of the bathroom exclaiming, “Mother, where is the ashtray?!!”. Wide eyed and shocked, we all sat straight up in bed. She had put her contact lenses in the ash ray. Actually, I think Nancy found them unharmed under the ashtray.

Jeanie had quite a time adjusting to her contact lenses-once she lost them in the blue stitches of her quilt. I don’t remember it taking long for Bill or Nancy to find them.

At one time, son David, drove a big 18 wheeler. Of course, during that time we were more aware of those trucks. Once Bill and I were traveling through the WV mountains; we were noticing how carefully one truck driver was taking the curves - just generally doing so well. When we reached the bottom of the mountain, we read on the truck door, “West Virginia Explosives!”

David enjoys his Harley Davidson Motorcycle. He had cats and kittens in his out building where he kept motorcycle supplies. As he was riding along once, his head began to itch. The kittens had been sleeping in his helmet!

When Jeanie was visiting Elm City with her family, little Chase (probably 2 or 3 years old) had a small sore on his arm. He called Hydrocortisone-- “Hydro-cornerstone”. Their church in Albemarle was Cornerstone.

After selling our house and retiring, Bill and I moved to a cottage in McDaniel’s back yard. When Bill and I were leaving to visit Jeff, Jeanie started out to the car with something for Jeff and Sheila.

Jeff had given Bill a lap-top computer; it was in the front seat between us - we were both leaning over trying to get it programmed. Thinking we must be praying, Jeanie waited for us to finish. After quite a while, we were still leaning over. Jeanie came and knocked on the window; she didn’t think we would be praying that long!!