My Grandmother, who was known by most folks as Aunt Jennie, was born the twenty ninth of August 1867 in Tennessee, she was the daughter of Alexander Hood and Rachel Graves Hood. Grandmother died the fourth of March 1942 and is buried in the Anderson cemetery on the old home place. She died at the home of her daughter, Carrie Rhodes, in Crane Missouri.

She was the only Grandmother I got to know very well,  because she lived a quarter of a mile from us and I would go and see her ever day that I could. My grandmother was a big woman compared to my Grandfather. I would say Grandmother was probably five foot ten inches, now that was taller than anybody else in the family. She wore her hair in a bun on the top of her head. I only saw her once with her hair down and it was long and wavy. She had a  fair complexion. Grandma spoke with authority, maybe this was because Grandpa Tom died when I was a month old and she had to become the head of the house. Also Thomas was a Stone County Judge for many years, so she was used to authority. She use to pay me a dime to pull her weeds, but to me that was a lot. She had a big lap and I liked to set on her lap as she told me stories. She never read me stories out of a book, she told me ones from her heart and head. I feel like I was special to her as I was her youngest grandchild.
Grandma was a good cook. She always made me a yellow skillet cake she baked on the top of the stove in a covered skillet and boy was it good.  I always got to take some home with me. She always kept her sugar, salt, dishes and silverware and her food that was left over from lunch on the table, covered with a cloth. Grandma made homemade Ice cream every Saturday night. She had Jersey cows which gave real rich cream and her Ice cream had to be the best in the land. Our cousins from Crane would come to her house and enjoy the treat. She only made Ice cream in the summer months as that’s when she had the most milk to make it with. I can remember setting on her long sidewalk and waiting for  the ice cream to be served.

Grandma grew a beautiful garden. She always grew lots of grapes, my sisters and I  would get into them and eat so many we would make ourselves sick. We never thought she knew we got into the grapes, she was always telling us if you get into them they will give you a belly ache, and many nights we did have the belly ache. Now I’m older and a Grandma myself, I know she knew we got into her garden. Grandmas’ garden was behind the old log barn and we didn’t think she could see us from the house. We ate a lot of her radishes and new peas in the pod, too. I’ll bet she was real proud of us when she went to get vegetables and they had been picked over.

Grandma cooked on an old iron stove, she had a cast iron tea kettle that set on top along with her cast iron skillet. She cooked many good things to eat on this old stove. Grandma always made her own sandwich dressing  I helped her make this a few times standing in a chair by her side. She made biscuits big as hamburger buns. Grandma's cows provide our family with milk when our cows went dry. Many nights Doris and I would walk home through the dark woods from Grandma’s with the milk and were always thinking something was going to get us.

Grandma had a shed down by the barn that had her black buggy in it. I never can remember seeing her in this buggy. She also had a big 1929 Chevrolet touring car that was green with black leather top, the windows were celluloid and you had to snap them into the frames to keep the rain out. The seats were black leather and the car had big silver headlights. Uncle John drove the car for Grandma, he called it Maybelle. I can remember riding in the back seat a time or two with the windows off and the wind blowing your hair and the breeze on your face. Uncle John was always teasing Grandma and she would fuss right back at him.

Grandma did most of her sewing by hand, she made her own bloomers out of bleached muslin. Her bloomers were made with a slit in them so she wouldn’t have to pull them down. They came almost to her knees. She made her slips and most of her dresses.  She wove most of her rugs on a loom. They were made out of rags and so were of many different colors.
I also liked to play in Grandma's cellar. It was always cool in the summer and warm in the winter and smelled good. We also played under the front porch.

Grandma had a big dinner bell that was on a tall pole out in the yard. She used this to call in the workers from the field for lunch. It could also be used to alert the neighbors in an emergency. She used a hand pump in the well outside and carried the water into the house.

Grandma always remembered my birthday, she usually bought material for Mom to make me a new dress, so I would have a Sunday dress that wasn’t made from feed sacks, and a birthday card and maybe a quarter for me to buy something I really wanted. She use to pop me popcorn in a wire basket with a long handle on it in the fire place and made cocoa to drink with it.
Grandma wore a hat when she went to Crane. It looked like a bowl with flowers on it. She also had a green medal box that hung by the font door that she kept her combs in. It had a mirror on it so she could see to comb her hair.

Grandma had her feather bed in the front room, it was a solid oak bed that my Grandfather Thomas had made. She would talk about sweeping goose dust from under the bed. I never knew what goose dust was until I was older and realized it was the dust that shook out of the feather bed on to the floor. Grandma was from Tennessee and had the hill talk she always said pison for poison and many other words for which we hillbilly’s are famous.

I cherish all the time I spent with my Grandma. When I had just turned nine my grandmother died suddenly. I was a flower girl at her funeral . She was buried in a light purple dress with her hair up in a bun.

I loved my grandma very much and cherish all the things I got to do with her. She was very special.