Bits from Mother's House: The Ice Storm

Since my Mother's death a few weeks ago I have been busy with my duties as executor, with a lot of help from Sheila. But along the way I have also been trying to scan and organize Mother's pictures and some of her letters and documents. 

I came across this tiny picture that she had in a tiny frame in the living room. I had noticed it many times over the years but never looked closely at it until I scanned it yesterday. I'm not sure I had even noticed that it was David, my brother. Details from the picture conjure a story of my preteen years. 

1.

First my beloved and much-anticipated first and only brother. What a precocious little guy he was! When Mother was expecting her last child my Daddy and I commandeered all the baby things: the crib, the little chest of drawers, etc. We hauled it to the yard of 333 South Ninth Street in Griffin, Georgia, prepared it appropriately, and painted it baby blue. I already had five sisters. I adored my two older sisters who were, it seemed to me, the smartest and most beautiful girls extant. I cherished my two little baby sisters, Debi and Beth, as cuties who were mostly unobjectionable. I tolerated my nearest sibling, Carol, who could be useful sometimes as a playmate, but who could be an encumbrance at other times. 

But surely it was only justice that I have at least one brother.

Our plan worked and David Baird Shaw was born just a few weeks before the now completed set of siblings moved with our parents to heaven -- Ellijay, Georgia. The parsonage there was a large modern brick ranch house on a big lot right on Dalton Street with a nice view of the mountains.

2.

Another detail is the carpet. Look at that stuff. It's hard to tell the color in this photo; it was dark green. But you can certainly see the texture: late-fifties big-loop shag! The parsonage committee had carpeted much of the house with this latest fad.

3.

The lit lantern gives a big clue about the timing. During our three and a half years in Ellijay one of the most memorable events -- a grand adventure for us kids and a terrible aggravation to our parents -- was "The Big Ice Storm".  We were without power for days. The whole family lived in the living room camping out on that shag carpet. There was a fireplace there, fueled by wood scraps Daddy obtained from a local sawmill. I'd be willing to bet this photo is from that time.

4.

And with the enlargement available from scanning the picture, I can see what David is "reading": my Boy Scout Handbook. No part of my life during this period was more central than my membership in the Boy Scouts of America. I anxiously awaited my copy of Boys Life every month. I poured over Merit Badge booklets to find my next project. I loved our camping trips.