Amen. I Love You!

Amen. I..... Love..... You...... is said as we squeeze hands around the kitchen table. This is another tradition that I was reminded of today at a meeting when we said a special pray where we stood and held hands for our loved ones.

It's a tradition

We just dropped Tudy off in Morgan, GA. What do we do everytime that we leave is get in the car and leave? It is a tradition... We roll down the windows, honk the horn and yell, "We LLOOOVVVVVEEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!" at the top of our lungs. Then we get a response from the door of a hand waving back. It's a tradition.

Weaning the children

Question: How were the Stroud children weaned?
Answer: All were weaned by Tudy and Papa.

~ Carmella was 2 1/2 when she was weaned. She was picked up in Mobile, AL when mommy and daddy had the bad flu. On the way home in Dothan, AL a hamburger and grits were purchased and was her first solid meal.

~ Aaron was picked up in Ocala, FL around the age 2 when he as weaned. His first meal is unknown but he did not have a problem with being away from his mom and dad. They were content with Tudy and Papa.

When it was time for David and Robby to be weaned, Mom had a Dr. that said, "after 12 months nursing becames a habit that is harder to stop."

~ David was just left with Tudy and Papa was 12 months. He did not miss mom and dad.

~ Robby was 12 months also when Tudy and Papa met our parents between Columbus, GA and Morgan, GA. The usual meeting place was Richland, GA however this day mom and dad were running late. So Papa drove past the meeting place; they met somewhere on the road near Cusseta, GA.

This is what Tudy was telling us as we drove home from a weekend in Columbus, GA. Those that got to hear this were: Tudy, Carmella, Aaron, Carrie, Sydney, Brianna and Kai.

Shit-ippey

My memory has been jogged by the posting of the "All in the fam" story today. Mom (Annette Stroud) was off to college. She tells the story like this:

It was a huge auditorium full of students in her first class for college. The professor was having everyone introduce themselves. When it came to mom, she stood up and said, "Annette Shippey". The professor said, "What is your last name?" She responded, "Shippey". He said, "What is it again?" She responded, "Shippey". He said, "Spell it". As she responded, she realized in the middle of saying it again that he had asked her to spell and so this is what came our of her mouth, "Shit-ippey". I would assume the room went up in a roar because it was the late 50's.

This is one to add to the postings of mom and her cursing.

All in the Fam

I guess it's about time I started posting something....haha! Well, I have decided that I need to go the beginning of my little entry into the Stroud family, and my mind keeps racing back to the moment when I heard Annette Stroud swear at the counter attendant at the airport.

We were racing to the Dulles Airport to get on our flight to Georgia. I had been married to Aaron for 4 1/2 days and we had just driven the long drive from Central PA (from our first reception) and were going back home to GA (to our second reception). We were unprepared with the size of the Washington DC airport and were in a race against time. A man at the counter told us (Annette, Robby, Aaron and I) that we could check our luggage in at the gate--so we took the tram to the train to the escalator to the gate.

They were letting the last passengers on, but because we did not check our luggage in (which the guy told we could do there), we were told we had to wait for a later flight. Annette took it upon herself to beg the woman at the counter to at least let Aaron and I get on because it was our honeymoon. The woman at the counter would not budge. Annette begged and begged and finally she said, "Well, you're just a little bitch!"

My mouth fell open. I was shocked. And proud of my new mama. And shocked. And can you believe it? The attendant did not let us on.

Pier Fishing in PC

One day Dad, Aaron and David left for PC Beach, FL and our plan was to sleep in the van while in the Parking lot by the Pier. When we got to the pier we fished for a little bit. Then we went to the van to sleep. About an hour later a Police Officer came and told us that we had to move. We then went and fished instead. We fished and fished but caught nothing. We also took the casting net to try but nothing. Some people caught King Mackerel but we still did not catch anything.

We left the pier and went and met Mom, Carmella and Robby back at the condo we were renting. We took a bath and then a quick nap. After the nap we were on our way back to the pier to fish but changed plans and went underneath a bridge to a place called "The Flats" which is very shallow water for miles long. We did not catch anything there either. Dad was videoing the area and as he was walking down a breaker, he fell off and cuts his legs. He saved the video camera. We don't know where the original taping of this is located but a few moments later Aaron and I took the Video camera and re in acted the event and laughed about it. Dad was totally fine about the fall. Dad had a first aid kit to save the day.

We left there and went to eat. Then it was back to fishing again for me to have an opportunity to cast the net about 15 times in hope that we would get a fish. That was not the case. No Fish for this fishing trip but a fun memory of Dad walking and falling with the video camera saying, "We are here in PC at the Flats. There are David and Aaron out there fishing. It is a beautiful day for fishing but they are not biting for us. Lets see where I am out now, Oh No.... bump bump bump, crash."


While we were fishing this day Mom, Carmella and Robby had an adventure of their own. They went on the PC strip which is the part of the main road down PC Beach. Mom was so proud to say this is where I spent my summers. As they were cruising at a snails pace, a girl in the car in front of them stood up in the sunroof and took off her top. Robby hit the floor board of the backseat while Mom banged on the window yelling at the girl that there is a little boy here and to put her top back on.

Barkley Dog

1) Barkley is Born.... Aaron called mom at work one day to tell her that the Principal of Arnold Jr. High School had brought her accidental puppies to school and could he have one. Mom said, No but the Principal got on the phone and said why don't you let him bring it home and if it does not work then bring him back. So, mom agreed.

Aaron brought home this cute little black puppy in his backpack on the bus. He came home and we all played with him. When dad arrived we all ran out to ask him if we could keep this puppy that Aaron brought home from school. Immediately, dad said no! However just after he responded this cute little puppy came running out the front door and straight at dad. Dad picked him up and he licked his face. It was done! He then agreed to keep this puppy.

2) How he got his name.... Barkley did what he wanted to do in the house and really struggled to understand the importance of getting house trained, or of listening too much. He was a smart dog and I think that he understood what was going on, just not the importance of doing what we wanted him to do. A name wasn't final for this accidental birth from a fully registered Golden Retriever and Basset Hound. For some reason he was all black, with the exception of a little white patch on his chest, despite having a golden retriever for a father. One night Momma Annette Stroud was watching the Phoenix Suns play a basketball game. At the last moment of the game, Charles Barkley had the opportunity to go in for an easy layup for the tie, but instead shot a three pointer for the hopeful win but missed, just before the last buzzer. The Suns lost. A few minutes later a young white reporter ask him about his decision to take the failed shot. "Sir" Charles Barkley responded, "You white reporters just don't understand us 90's niggas. We 90's niggas gonna do what we 90's niggas want to do." That was it for mom, and Barkley was his name, because our Barkley was going to do what he wanted to do.

It's a direct quote, and I am sorry if anyone finds offence, but if so just deal with it.

Nancy Meat

We had a Pig named Nancy. She was raised from a piglet to a hog at "The Morgan Farm". When it came time to harvest Nancy, Papa and Dad (Robert S. Stroud Sr.) did it all in the backyard of the farm.

When they finished with all of the processing of the meat we cooked some bacon.

Everyone is sitting at the kitchen table slowing eating the food and having a hard time eating the meat. Nancy had been a pet to some and they were having a problem with eating the meat. But, we had one person in the family that was gorging on the food. That would be Aaron. Aaron was eating and eating the meat with no pausing. When he finished his plate of food he wanted more. He said, "Please pass the Nancy meat." This ended it for everyone. All the forks went down and no one wanted anything else to eat except for Aaron who was downing his next helping of "Nancy meat".

Fire ants

We lived on McNeese Drive and were outside talking with friends. Robby who was about two years old adventured outside in his diaper only. All of a sudden he started screaming.

Mom, Erin Elliott and I saw Fire ants crawling all over his body. He had walked into a bed of Fire ants and they were mad! We stripped the diaper off of him right there in the front yard and knocked all of the ants off.

He was covered in ant bites and had scares for many years. All these little white looking mini rectangle marks on his legs and arms. I think the scares have now vanished after at least twenty years.

Pillowcase pillow and sleeping

When you are a kid you love sleeping with other people. I loved sleeping with all of my grandparents.

My grandpa's made it extra special for me. PopPop would take an empty pillowcase and fold it for my pillow. Folding a pillowcase gives no support but when PopPop folded it, I could tell. If it got unfolded he would have to fold it back up for me and lay it on his bed next to his pillow. Now, I think it was because he did not have an extra pillow for me to use so he came up with this great idea and this little girl ate it all up. It was our special thing when I would come to his house. Maybe it is because of this that I don't have to have a pillow to sleep.

One time I woke up and he was not next to me. He had already gotten up but something had changed. My pillow was missing and so was his. What had happened? Don't remember what they told me at that time but I was less than eight years old. I had peed on him that night. He had changed the sheets and he slept somewhere else. He did not want anyone to tell me because he just knew that I would be so embarrassed.

As I got older it was not appropriate for me to sleep with them so MomMom and PopPop got me a cot to sleep on next to their bed in their bedroom. PopPop would still fold my pillowcase for me.

Mom Mom's cookies

We loved MomMom's (Carmella "Ella" P. Stroud) Cooking. One of the great memories I have at MomMom's house was going into where PopPop's office was and getting into the freezer. We only went with MomMom and when it was her idea (otherwise we would get into trouble). It is here that she would have prepared cookies prior to us coming and had frozen them for us. We could pick one or two. The cookie that I remember the best is the Peanut Butter cookies with the Hershey Kisses in the middle.

Ice Cream Man is coming

The Ice Cream man would come down Mc Neese Drive in Columbus, GA every Saturday. You could hear the green truck about three minutes before he was at our house. Those days, we were playing outside all the time from dawn to dusk with no shoes on.

For some reason, I always had money. If I did have money that meant that everyone could get an ice cream. So, everyone would run out to stop the green ice cream truck. Sometimes, I was getting the money and Aaron, David or Robby would run and stop him. Then there were those times that he would make it into Kopay Court and be going down McNeese again when we would finally catch up with him.

So, these dirty kids with no shoes on would run down the road waving money chasing the ice cream man for a fudge sickle, ice cream sandwich, Rocket, Bubble Gum Cone or Chocolate Eclair.

Many dollars went to that Ice Cream man and his green truck which later was traded for a white truck but the same song and same man with gray hair bent in the truck getting frozen treats out of his freezers.

Beehive and Old Tree

It was a nice and hot summer day many summers ago. Carmella was young (approx. 5 yrs old) and Aaron (approx. 3 yrs old) was twenty-one months younger. We would get into trouble if we could but mostly it was all done to have fun. So we had this piece of fence that was big enough for both of us to walk in like we were hamsters in a hamster wheel. We were walking all around in that child hamster wheel this day. We adventured down to where an old Oak tree was and where Uncle Benie's (Papa's brother) had put his honey bee boxes while he had gone out of town for a bit.

Now, I bet Papa and Tudy had told us both to stay away from those Honey Bees but it was that warning that made us adventure down to the tree to see them. We wheeled up to those boxes and lifted one of those lids off of a box. I, Carmella, remember seeing inside and all the honey with the bees covering it. But, the lid had not been lifted for very long when the bees started to bit us both. We started running back. We started in our child hamster wheel but could not go fast enough. The bees were stinging us. So we headed to the house and left the wheel there. I was pulling Aaron's three year old arm behind me and running as fast as I could. He was slow! I would drop his arm and yell for him to run faster and I would run ahead. Then, I would turn around and see he was behind me and go grab his hand and drag him behind me a few more steps and leaps.

We finally made it back to the house. I remember seeing Tudy as we ran back. She had been hanging the laundry out to dry on the line in the back of the house. She met us at the gate asking what was going on and seeing that some of the bees were still stinging us and seeing all of the stings we had on us. She went and got the gasoline but before that scolded us for going down to where we were told not to go and for taking the lid off. Later we learned it took a few days for the bees to calm down and Tudy went down to the Oak tree and put the lid back on. That child hamster wheel stayed down there for months.

Papa & Eye Drops

Papa (Lovick Pierce Shippey, Jr.) had an eye infections and needed Tudy (Mary Elizabeth Middleton) to put drops in his eyes. However, Papa was being difficult and stubborn like he could be.

He wanted the eye drops in but would not open his eyes. So, what did Tudy? He was laying down eyes shut tightly but mouth wide open. She dropped the drops in his mouth and RAN!

Running away in Shellman

We were moving into a beautiful historical house in Shellman, GA. I, Carmella, was around four years old and did not want to move to this little town. So, I got on my BIG WHEEL (three wheeled plastic tricycle) and headed back to Ocala, FL. I was not going to stay in GA.

I went down the street, took a left and went five blocks when I was stopped by a nice gentlemen in a gray pickup truck. He asked where I was going and where were my parents. Don't remember what I said but he somehow figured that I belonged to the new family moving into town and called mom on the phone.

He asked mom, "Do you have a little girl and was she missing?" It is at that time my mom noticed that I was gone. The man said he would bring me back home. He took my Big Wheel, put it into the bed of his truck and drove the five blocks down the street, took a right and met my mom and dad in the front of the house. I was not happy to be back at home! They were glad to have me back!

Storybook of memories

This blog has been created for the family members of Robert Stanley Stroud and Annette Shippey Stroud to share memories. It is to be our familly storybook of memories.

Rules: Post often and tell your stories.... Please label your post with whom the story is about.
Ex: "Honey Bees and Tree Story" would be labeled: Carmella, Aaron, Tudy