This is a picture of my "Aunt Tater and Uncle Wibb taken in 1977
This was shortly before Uncle Wibb's death
She is a grandchild of Junius Wesley Binkley  and Sarah Pilcher

 Grandma Bessie Woodward and family 

From what I can remember of Grandpa " Mack",  I never cared much for him
He was a mean hateful  person who both drank and chewed tobacco.
I  have been  told that he had been very abusive to my grandmother and  aunt.
There were a lot of hard feeling over the years between him and my father.
The only thing nice I can remember about him was that he made beautiful
things from glass. Like inlayed tables and lamps , art decco type stuff.
I asked my mother one time why  I disliked Grandpa Woodward so much.
She said that he had killed  my  pet duck I had when I was quite small and
I never got over it. I think there was more to it than that, He was scary.

But as much as I disliked Grandpa, I loved Grandma Bessie much more.
She was  middle age, stocky build and white haired when I first saw her.
I have a picture of her as a young girl taken from  the Pilcher family book,
She was a beautiful young girl  as were her sisters.
and Graham ,( her sister Mattie's boy ) said she was a beautiful woman.

Grandma Bessie had a sweet and quiet  demeanor.
She also had a great deal of patience. Spent hours with me
trying to teach me how to crochet doll dresses.
My mother Inez excelled at crocheting but I never took it up as an adult.
What ever had caused her breakdown she was in no way impaired.
She was the kind of person that if a building fell down behind her
she would never have bothered to turn around to see what happened.

Breakfast at her house was a real large morning  meal. Same way when I would visit her brother " Uncle Ottis" up in Pennsylvannia. Regular farm breakfast with meat, potatoes, biscuits, gravy. a table full of good food. I had no way of know all she had been through but from things I over heard, my grandfather had the habit of moving strange women into the house as boarders I know that on at least one occasion, my father went down and threw one of them out.

I think I got my interest in gambling from Grandma Bessie. In those days they didn't have the lotto. They played something called the daily 3. I can remember her taking small amounts of money like a dime or quarter and going to somewhere in the neighborhood and betting it . Then she would watch the paper and if some government report, Treasury , I think came out right she might win some money.
This was done very quietly and it was understood that I would not  mention it to Grandpa.

One memory I have of Grandma Bessie was at the train station in Wilmington Del.
I was waiting on the platform with her for her train back to Baltimore.
She was clean but very plainly dressed. Not a stylish  person at all.
She walks up to this most proper looking man.
He was in a black topcoat with a fancy headed cane.
Grandma hollered out,  "Hey Pops  what time is the train due"
The man looked at her with a look of being surprised at being called "Pops"
But he took out his gold pocket watch and replied to her in a gracious manner.

One time my sister Phyllis had gone down to visit with Grandma in Baltimore.
We lived in Wilmington Delaware at the time. My sister decided that she wanted to go home. When Grandma didn't move fast enough for her, she took matters  in her own hands.  So Phyllis goes  down to a public pay phone and managed to convince the operator that she was being held there against her will.
By this time Phyllis is so upset that the phone operator thinks that she has been kidnapped.The police got involved before it could all get straighten out.
I think my Grandma favored me from that day forward.
Which was nice since my sister who had been a blue baby was the favorite at home.

I always loved to visit my Grandmother or my Aunt Evelyn in Baltimore
They were always so nice to me. Eating at my Aunt's who I called "Tater" was an adventure. She cooked all kinds of strange  animals such as squirrels and rabbits.
I wouldn't eat them then nor will I eat them now. I guess my Uncle Wibb  liked to hunt. The first thing my Aunt Tater would do when I arrived was to bathe me.
I can remember standing at her kitchen sink having my hands scrubbed with a brush. Either she was a nut on being clean or I was one grubby little girl.
I always wanted to stay at her house. I found out later that I had spent a lot of time with her as a baby and I guess that is why I always thought of her as a mother. figure. One thing that I remember being such fun. She would make "Snow Pudding" from the freshly fallen snow. It was as good as ice cream.
I wonder if any body makes it now of days with all the air pollution we have.

One day my cousin Wibby and I tied up my sister Phyllis in a chair and gave her a hair cut. She couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old. Boy did we catch it for that idea. I also remember one of the worst days of my life.Uncle Wibb had a big old rooster. It was the meanest bird that ever lived. The "Bird" was huge , almost as tall as I was. I was terrified of it and it seem to dislike me personally. One day that rooster sent me screaming into the house.My Uncle Wib decided that the time had come to get rid of that darn bird . I followed Uncle Wibb back into the yard and stood fearful to one side to watch. He lay the chicken's head across the stump of a old tree, then taking his axe he cut the rooster's head off.
Well that darn bird flopped off the stump and ran directly to me with it's wings just a flapping I just knew it was coming to get me even with no head. It took some time to get me calm down.I was never comfortable around birds or chickens again, not even after I was grown.
It was at my Aunt Taters house that I remember seeing my Uncle "Toat.
His name was William Arthur Woodward.
I don't remember him much because he was a seaman.
I think he was a Captain on ship working somewhere in Germany.
I never saw him again and I think he died in Baltimore.
He was married but had no children that I know of.
I don't remember any of my mother's people except my grand parents Woodward,
Aunt Evelyn Smith , Uncle Toat and  Uncle Ottis Binkley who lived in Pa.

Uncle Ottis had a farm and I can remember a water fall and the out house.
 there was a lot of kids  and  lots of food, Our visits to the farm never lasted very long. No way could anybody convince me to use the out house.
My mother would finally bring me home because she was afraid I would get sick.
I still feel the same way about  outhouses

I don't remember Uncle Howard Woodward at all. Vague family memories
were that he too was a seaman and he lived on the West coast.
His wife's name was " Lorraine"

The last time I saw my Grandmother Bessie was when I was 17 years old.
I had gone to Maryland to get married to my first husband.
I took him down to meet my grand parents.
Some kind of problem happened , I don't remember what the problem was this time. But my husband had to take a loaded shot gun away from Grandpa Mack
Because he was threatening to kill my father again.
May have been because Grandpa had a new  lady "Boarder "

Although I never saw Grandma  again I did have some letters from her
One of these days I will have to get the old trunk out of storage and see what I can find . She was a fine woman this Grandma Bessie of mine.

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