Mom, Pt. 1

Mom was born in 1922 in a house on Sevierville road. There was a midwife in attendance. The house still stands and I always took great pleasure in asking Mom to point it out to me when we drove by. My mom was born there!

She grew up in Rockford with her parents, Bessie and Hobart Williams, and her brother, Clyde. Granddaddy took over and ran his father's mill, imaginatively named The Rockford Mill. (I'd never thought about this before, but I do think my creativity comes from Daddy's side of the family. For sure my craziness does!) Parts of the mill race dam are still visible from the greenway parking lot. The road on which the mill stood is now called Williams Mill Road.

Their house sat back from the road, on the other side of the river. There was a narrow walkway/bridge that connected the mill with the property where the house sat. Mom took Sissy and me once to see the house. We drove back to the house on this overgrown road. It looked abandoned but I remember that once we could see the house, we could tell it was occupied, run down as it was. It seemed very backwoods to me. A little scary.

Mom had a scar on her chin from falling and cutting it on the chicken coop when she was a kid. She thought it was ugly. I thought it was really cool.

I remember talking with her one time about whether or not I was a "surprise" baby (7 1/2 years younger than Sissy, 10 years younger than Mac). She confirmed that I was and told me she was, too. "Hole in the rubber," she said. I was completely flabbergasted. I had no idea there were rubbers back when Granddaddy and Grandmom were having sex! I also felt kinship with Mom.

Mom was athletic, loved basketball. Unfortunately, when she started menstruating, she had such bad cramps and heavy bleeding, she couldn't play during her time of the month so she quit. (She had a hysterectomy when I was a kid. She most likely suffered from endometriosis.)

Mom went to Maryville College and graduated Cum Laude with a degree in History.

During WWII mom got a job with the government decoding messages. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. I remember her telling me that /e/ is the most frequently used letter in English. I've recently wondered why she was not recruited to work at the then top secret Oak Ridge project. Maybe she was and chose not to do that. Anyway, her job took her to D.C. She told me she hated it there.

Upon her return from the war, she worked at an insurance agency. It was here that she met Daddy, who came in one day, most certainly looking very dashing. I can so picture him standing in the doorway, handsome, charming, funny. And mom sitting at her desk, pretty, smart, and also funny. They had great senses of humor. I wonder what they talked about, how he asked her out. I wish I could've been a fly on that wall.