My theme for the A to Z April Challenge is “In-Laws and
Out-Laws – Friends of the Family.” I
will be researching friends, colleagues, neighbors - those people who came and
went touching my family’s lives in both small and large ways.
is for Nancy.
Nancy Christine Danielson Taylor.
Momma and Nancy were friends from high school, probably because they
were cheerleaders together. How close
they were, I’m not sure. There are no
photos of them goofing off and hanging out together although there are such
photos of Momma with some of their other girlfriends.
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| Nancy Danielson 1945 |
Except for cheerleading, their interests went in opposite
directions. While Momma was active with
the newspaper staff and Spanish Club, Nancy gravitated to basketball and the Hi-Y
Club, a service organization.
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| Nancy #6 Forward scanned from the 1946 Admiral |
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| Cradock Hi-Y Club 1946 Nancy is 5th from the left on the front row kneeling scanned from 1946 Admiral |
Nancy was the second daughter born to Gus and Peggy
Danielson when they were living in Redford, Michigan. Gus was a tool maker for a car factory,
likely in Detroit as it was about a 20-minute commute to the automobile capital
of the world. Sometime between 1935 and
1940, the Danielsons moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, and settled in the
community of Cradock. Gus worked as a
machinist for the shipyard. This was
about the same time that my grandparents moved to Cradock. With the war, there were lots of job
opportunities at the shipyard.
As adults Momma and Nancy were very close friends. We lived around the corner from Nancy and
Skeeter, so we grew up with the Taylor kids.
Sometimes Nancy was our afternoon babysitter until Momma could get home
from school (she was a teacher – she wasn’t IN school).
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| Nancy, Momma, Rusty I wonder if I did Nancy's hair that week. |
I vaguely recall some of those moments, especially when
Nancy would scurry around picking up Mary Jollette’s and Rusty’s toys before
Momma got home, but my strongest memories are “Hair Night.” Nancy had very thick naturally curly
hair. When I was in high school, I used
to be her “between haircuts” hair dresser.
Seriously. I had a table-top
salon-style hair dryer, brush rollers and a teasing comb. The kitchen became a make-shift salon where I
worked my amateur magic on both my mom and Nancy. The house would be full of chatter and
laughter because Nancy always had something funny going on. When Nancy laughed, she snorted, and that
would make us laugh all the more.
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| The Taylors' cotton tree. |
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| Skeeter, Nancy, Rusty 1971 or 1972 |
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| Nancy, Mary Jollette, Wendy |
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| Skeeter, Nancy, Rusty at my parents' house |
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| Skeeter and Nancy |
The funniest memory of Nancy was the time she talked
Momma into going with her to the beauty school at the shopping center to get
their hair washed and curled cheap. She
thought it would be great fun to let budding hairdressers practice on them, not
to mention a bargain. Fortunately for
Momma, she ended up looking rather good after that $5 investment. Nancy, on the other hand, was disappointed in
her own, to put it mildly. In fact, the
two of them couldn’t wait to get out of the salon because they couldn’t contain
their laughter much longer. What was so
bad about that hairdo? Was it the tight
curl? Or that black velvet bow above her
bangs? Sure wish I had a picture!
My parents had wonderful friends that I miss as if they
were my own. Skeeter and Nancy are
buried in the Olive Branch Cemetery in Portsmouth, Virginia.
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| photo courtesy of Steve Poole, Findagrave.com |
Lest I neglect the niceties, all neophytes, newcomers and
novices are welcome to navigate the numerous news, narratives, novels and notes
at the A to Z April Challenge.
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Looks like she lived a good, happy, long life. Funny how your mom and Nancy weren't that close in high school but got close later on. Kind of true for life.
ReplyDeleteLiz A. from Laws of Gravity
Yes, Nancy had a good family and a good life. Funny lady.
DeleteLovely that they had a long lasting friendship. I've never seen a Christmas like theirs before.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a tree like theirs either.
DeleteWow, that cotton tree is special! Love all your family stories, how fun to be able to share in everyone's Christmas holiday together too.
ReplyDeleteSome time I need to ask Peggy and Rusty how they did that tree -- where they found a tree to wrap and how they did it.
DeleteAll during the year we looked along road sides for the perfect gumball tree then close to Christmas we chopped it down. If there were bald spaces Dad would cut a limb from a spare tree, drill a hole, and put the new branch in. We would put the lights on first then cut surgical cotton we got from Gary Lawrence's Pharmacy in strips and wrap all the tree and strings for the lights. Next would come the ornaments and tinsel which would be covered by angel hair and then spray snow. When the lights were turned on the colors showed almost like close-knit spider webs - it was really beautiful. We never had a green tree until I was in high school and the white one caught on fire the day before Christmas Eve. Rusty was a baby and I carried him next door to the Allen's and got Mr. Allen to call the fire department. Anne remembers Russ wetting on her bathrobe. Funny the things we remember. Now they no longer make the surgical cotton either.
DeleteWhat fascinating posts you are featuring for the challenge. Love the beautiful photos you're including too. I've never heard of a cotton tree before. Unique trees are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSorry for reminding you about that Nor'easter when you visited my blog. :)
No prob about the nor'easter -- I was really kidding.
DeleteI've heard of cotton trees but had never seen one, even in a photo, until now. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDeb@ http://debioneille.blogspot.com
Glad I could oblige - now your life is complete. ;-)
DeleteIt's funny that many of your memories about Nancy had to do with hair styling!
ReplyDeleteOh Debi, too funny -- I thought the same thing when I reread my rough draft.
DeleteI love the photographs you are sharing as well as lovely memories. Nancy has a very cheerful face and a happy smile.
ReplyDeleteYep, she had a big smile and big laugh.
DeleteMy favorite story of Momma and Nancy in high school is when, Mom, JoAnn, Nancy, Cookie and Betsy all climbed on the fire truck outside of the station one night as if they were going to a fire. Nancy accidentally hit the siren, and of course they all jumped off and ran! Momma said they were laughing so hard they couldn't run.
ReplyDeleteNancy was really just the best. So much fun to be with. She was hilarious!
I still have my precious red coat that Nancy knitted for me when I was in a size 6X =)
I don't remember that story.
DeleteI wish I had a picture of you in that coat. I would have used it.
I'm surprised she didn't wet her pants, she usually did when she laughed a lot. I remember the red coat. She worked on that while I knitted one for Nannie.
DeleteDear Wendy, I love coming here and reading your GREAT stories and memories! jean
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jean! And I'm loving your fictionary.
DeleteI love when you mix the "recent" photos with past...and when your stories are "alive."
ReplyDeleteHappy A-Z!
Then I need to do more of those.
DeleteWendy, Mom would have loved the memories. I remember the last time your Mom and Cookie came to see Mom at the nursing home. She looked at them and smiled but then became confused and walked away and began dusting the furniture which is what she did most of the day. It was so upsetting to them but I like to think it was a memory for her that was remembered, one of so many wonderful memories. Thank you so much for this wonderful walk back through time. I think of your Mom every day, and thank her for pushing the grammar lessons that I so appreciate the older I get.
ReplyDeleteI also meant to tell you Grandpa Danielson worked for Henry Ford in Detroit. When they shut down the factory during the depression he gave everyone a car for severance. I have a picture of Mom and Aunt Peaches standing on the running board. Grandpa sold the car and bought train tickets for them to come to Cradock where he went to work in the shipyard. I think Mom was about 2-3 then. Grandma became the first female ambulance driver in Virginia a little while later. They were both so much fun to be around.
ReplyDeleteOh that is such a cool story. I thought about messaging you before I wrote this, but you were so busy with Dennis that I just didn't think you'd have time for my questions. Thanks for filling out this story!
Delete