Rot, Shoes & Ladies Unmentionables

October 20

On today’s episode of The Old and the Rotten…

The guys are ripping into the porch room aka “Tammy’s Room.” This area was originally a porch, but the kids needed a place to sleep. 

First, this was my dad’s room. He talks about how he had to always climb in the window, because he would be out working or with friends and everybody would go to bed and lock him out. Once he moved out, it became my Aunt Tammy’s Room. She loved purple and the walls were much prettier purple, at one time. 

I do not know how in the heck they got a full size bed and all of their things in this room, but they did. They had just enough space to crawl off the bed and out the door. Simpler times back then. 

As you can see, the theme of rotten foundation continues.

Oh! This tumbleweed looking thing. Let me tell you, I fought this mess for years! Once upon a time, Abbie got her hands on a flower arrangement that had this mess in it. All she saw was pretty, green plant. She loved working in the yard, more than anything. Well, she planted it and I think it was some kind of ivy.

 Next thing you know, it’s taking over all her flower beds. Then, I happen to be in the living room one day, and I pulled the curtain back. This cretin of a vine was growing up between the wall and the window. Dad and I spent an entire Saturday afternoon cleaning up the flower beds and trimming the shrubs. We thought whacking it down with the weed eater would kill it. Wrong! It’s the vine that keeps on giving. 

After Abbie moved on to her Heavenly home, Dad sprayed the vine and once it died, we pulled a bunch of it from beneath the house. Fast forward to the Reno and they are still pulling this mess out from beneath the house.

MeMaw, I know you were laughing all the way in Heaven about this vine!

All of the exposed joists looking from the dining room into the kitchen. Want a workout? Crawl over floor joists several times.

From the spare bedroom looking toward the front door. We have dirt and duct work. 

At least the dining room fireplace has the decency to stand strong!

I’m beginning to think that back in the day, when they needed to build something, they built around whatever was there. The guys found a ladies shoe in the walls. Not under the house- IN the walls. 

Another shot of the shoe. It’s currently in my box of “things found in the walls and other cool items collected during renovation.”

No words! One of my female ancestors lost an undergarment. I can’t believe what good shape it’s in because it’s no telling how long it was in that wall. 

This seems like a good time to share an Abbie conversation.

(Keep in mind, my contractors never had the pleasure of meeting my outrageous, spitfire of a grandma. What better way to let them “meet” the lady who ran the house they are saving, than to tell stories about her.)

This happened on another of our famous Hamrick’s trips. If y’all haven’t figured it out yet, mom and I laughed all the way there and usually got the silent treatment all the way back home. She would either be wore out (the last few times we went) or royally p’d off that something didn’t go her way. 

Anyway this particular day, she was in rare form. She had threatened to slap somebody over breakfast, yelled hilarious comments about mom’s driving and read the newspaper from back to front- yes, you read that correctly. She started with the front page and then went straight to the back page and read back to the front page, ending with “There ain’t a d@*# thing in this paper.” 

Then she decided it was a great idea to talk about the size of ladies undergarments we wore. She wanted to know what size I wore and I wouldn’t tell her. She would have told the entire community on one of her phone gossip conversations. Well, because I wouldn’t tell her my size and didn’t dare to tell her why, she decided I needed a pep talk:

“No need to be ashamed of what God gave you. He made you that way and they are yours so be proud. I wear a ______. Mine used to be bigger that that til they dried up.”

Best pep talk ever!