Decided to use this as my FBF photo because I wanted to document the 4 generations and write about my mothers memories of her summers spent with her family in Chattanooga, TN. They would try to drive down from Michigan for a visit every year, and mom has many fond memories of her time there.
This picture was taken in the early 1950’s in Chattanooga at my great grandparents house. It was a big red wooden house on top of a hill in East Ridge area of the city, just north of Georgia. According to the census it was Ringgold Rd.
My grandparents were home visiting their families, and had 3 children at this time. The oldest child with her fingers in her mouth is my mother.
4 generations
–My mother and her 2 sisters. My mom was about 5 or 6. Her younger sister was about 3 and the baby was about a year old.
–My grandmother, Hilda, would have been about 23 or 24 when this photo was taken. By this time she would have 3 children. 2 more were to follow in 1955 and 1957
–Hilda’s dad , Hubert, is on the right.
–Hilda’s grandfather, Charles, is on the left. He passed away a few years after this photo was taken.
family reunions and other memories.
Every time they would come down for a visit, Hilda’s family would get together and celebrate. Everyone would come . Cousins from Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia would all converge and they would eat and play and talk. They would have a big blanket and she would lie in the middle of it. The cousins would each take a corner and swing her in that blanket, and” it was just the funnest, scariest thing. One of the families would bring their Georgia peaches. I remember them being the best peaches I have ever eaten.”
She remembers the drive down, and always going through Cincinnati Ohio. The radio station there was WCKY, and they would find the station as they got near. One year in 1958 Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” was playing, and her dad was diving with the window down. “My mother would bring a loaf of bread and bologna, and we would stop at tables along the side of the road and eat sandwiches. We didnt go out to eat because they didn’t have that kind of stuff along the way. You couldn’t just stop at a McDonalds. It was a bunch of back roads and it took forever to get there. Funny the little details you remember.”
A soon as they would get to town they would go to a farmers market in downtown Chattanooga and buy the biggest, juiciest, sweetest watermelons. “I think the market was near the depot. We would cut them up and eat them that night. I just remember thinking I had never tasted such delicious watermelons”
They loved to go for a drive and the kids would love to go through the tunnel in the mountain. ( I know this exact tunnel and remember I used to love to go through it too!)
not all sunshine and roses
My mother remembers her Aunt taking her downtown Chattanooga to the movies and seeing all the segregation for the first time . She wasn’t used to that, had never experienced that up in Michigan. She remembers seeing “coloreds only” signs, and the multiple drinking fountains and bathrooms, sitting at the back of the bus. Why did they have their own entrances and exits? Why couldn’t they go in the same swimming pools? “I remember being kind of shocked about that. Where I lived we didn’t have any African Americans, so I never dealt with that kind of thing before. I guess I just assumed it was the way things were. I was pretty young, and I don’t think I realized what I was seeing, or what was happening.”
flashback friday challenge
Post a photo and interview a relative and have them share memories of the people and moment. Share on social media, or write in your family history journal.
