WEBB-SWAN LAKE

I am the blonde on the front row.

For the first two years of my school career I attended Webb-Swan Lake School. It was a big square, red brick building with huge trees and metal slide a mile high. At least it seemed that way when I was there. The bathrooms were in the basement and led out to the playground. The auditorium had those wooden seats with the fat seat cushions. Then there was the cafeteria with the lunch line and melamine trays. It's also where I went to Brownies.

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Cash and I thought she was beautiful. She had an Easter Egg hunt at her house that year and I found the Queen's Nest. It had a GOLDEN EGG. Oh my, I thought I had discovered a million dollars.

Mrs. Hood was our bus driver and after dropping off all the students would work in the West Tallahatchie High School cafeteria. She then drove us home in the afternoon.
She would pass by my house at 6:15 every morning and blow the horn. That meant I had about 15 minutes to get ready before she was back to pick me up. Some mornings I would get on the bus with my hairbrush, barrettes, headband or other hair accessories for my cousin, Ann, to finish my hair. Then there was the hour long ride to school. I had a big lunch box into which would be 2-3 PB&J sandwiches, chips, fruit and milk in the thermos. That was lunch and snack for the ride home since it would be after 4 when I finally returned home.
Most days I would eat my sandwiches and take a nap for the ride home. I guess I was blessed in that I had 2 older cousins on the bus and most of the other kids where from our little town.

Just gotta love "Dick and Jane"

Mrs. Cash had me tutor 2 of the boys in our class. Wendell, the boy sitting to my right in the picture and the other boy on the front row to the right of Wendell (don't remember his name). Anyway she would take me and one of them down the hall to small room, possibly a closet, and I would help them with their reading. I can't remember how this arrangement came about. I have feeling it was as much to help them as it was to keep me busy. Seems I was a little more advanced than the other 1st graders. Not too shabby for a girl whose parents didn't finish high school. I do know that I have loved to read as long as I can remember.

Second grade brought Mrs. Shaw and cursive writing. I remember the huge chalkboard with the cursive examples above it and the big pull down maps. This is the year I became Mopsy in our play about Peter the Rabbit.  My mama made my entire costume out of some sort of stretchy polyester complete with powder puff tail and coat hanger stuffed ears. I LOVED that costume! Don't think I had any lines, just remember being on stage a lot. This would be my last year at Webb-Swan Lake school. The next year, my year I would begin attending Pillow Academy in Greenwood. I didn't find out until years later that it was because Webb was to be integrated in the Fall of 1969.
Thinking back on those two years reminds me of the innocent times in which I thought I lived. It's amazing to realize how sheltered my life was and how naive.

THE WISPS

I really don't remember too much until my sister was born in March 1968. I was almost 6, asthmatic, extremely precocious and terribly skinny. Rumors have it that I had quite the potty mouth, what with my parents rebelling from being dragged to church their entire lives and a daddy that was a sailor. Thankfully I grew out of the "pottiness". Don't think  I outgrew the "mouthiness" though.
Anyway, there are bits and pieces that hang on in my head. I remember our little white 2 bedroom house in Greenwood. I remember walking to the park. I remember moving into the house in Phillip. I have a vague recollection of being in Big Mama's pantry hiding. Although I'm not sure from whom. I remember staying with my older cousins and their maid Cora Mae for Big Mama's funeral. My, did I love Miss Cora. Cora Mae was itty bitty, dipped snuff and I loved her dearly. I only got to see her a when I was at my cousins. I thought she was the best thing in the whole world.
I remember my daddy's baby blue 1964½ Mustang.

According to a lot of my family and friends it was also known to strike fear into their hearts when seen approaching their houses. The rally cry was unleashed: "OH NO, HERE COMES VICKIE LYNN!" To which I'm told there was much scurring about for places to hide. I, of course, have NO memories of these incidents. If I did, I'm sure I would be much more unbalanced than I am now.

They kept that car for a very long time, until after my sister was born for sure. My mama spun out on a gravel road and took it in and out of a barbed wire fence. She was headed to my aunt's house to do laundry. She would have been in her early 20s and I'm sure she was speeding on the gravel road. As you will see later, my mother had an affinity for very unique car accidents.

I remember that it snowed the day my sister was born which was the first day of spring. I remember bringing her home from the hospital. I sat in backseat of my grandparent's car with my grandpa while he held my little sister. She had a TON of hair. He held her on his legs and talked and talked to her. I was snuggled up as close as I could get to him. Not a seat belt in sight for the entire 18 mile ride from the hospital!

So here it goes...

My 83 year old friend suggested (strongly) that I should begin writing about my life. She did the same for her daughter. I laughed and told her that she remembered more about her 83 years than I did about my 49. She assured me that the more I remembered and wrote, the more I would remember.

As the poem states, "Thursdays child has far to go." I was born Thursday, July 12, 1962 at General Hospital in Greenville, MS. Kermit, the Frog, was also born in Greenville. His daddy was born in Leland, right down the road. My parents were 17 1/2 & 22. They had been married one year and 11 days. 

My daddy, Robert Cecil Parish, worked at the carpet mill. My mother, Mildred Dianne Pernell Parish was home with me. I do know we lived at 331 Mulberry Dr. for a while before moving to W. Barton Dr. in Greenwood. My daddy went to work for Midwest Farms and my mom worked at the picture frame factory. We lived there for a few years before moving to Philipp to live in my paternal grandparents' house. My "Big Mama" died and my daddy and his older brother were the only family still living in MS. The house was orginally left to my Uncle Norman. He in turn sold it to my daddy. I lived in Philipp until 1984 when I moved to Tyler. I haven't looked back or regetted it one bit.