OUR DRIVER FAMILY MEMORIES
Sharing Our Memories
I wanted to share some of my memories of growing up within the Driver family and hope that some of you out there will send along some of your own memories to share?
Being one of the youngest of all of Susie's grandchildren, I don't have nearly as many memories of times spent with Susie as most of the rest of the cousins. My memories are more of time spent going to visit the relatives and cousins as you all grew and started families of your own. As most of us know, my parents loved to get in the car and go visit! Of course one reason for that could probably be that they knew and fully understood what an undertaking that long trip up to Babbitt was! I used to think their reason for going to visit everyone else was that even they didn't really want to be stuck in Babbitt so they didn't blame anyone else for not particularly wanting to make the trip up there! And, when someone did make it up there my parents were always thrilled, excited and happy to have them visit!
I think the only one they didn't quite always look forward to a visit from was Aunt Elizabeth(Sis)? I am sure everyone has their own memories of visits with or from her.... As a child, I never minded her visits, I loved to hear about all of the places she'd been, the people she'd visited, even if I didn't really have a clue half the time as to who she was talking about? Her stories about them still always kept me listening from some little corner where no one would notice me and go on talking about all of their "adult" things which I wasn't supposed to be listening to! I also found it rather amusing to watch her and my Dad argue and pick at each other the whole time!
As a small child, my world, my measurement of time and seasons were based on and revolved around family visits, events and occasions. Fall was the time you went to Crosby and Brainerd one last time before winter set in. It was for getting Susie's house and yard ready for winter of her being away.
Winter was when Grandma Susie came up north to stay. It was spending time between our house and Eleanor's in Hoyt Lakes. Winter was when we had more time to share with Susie. It was when the house and the freezer got filled with the results of all of Grandma's baking. For me, being very little, very quiet at that time, it was time when I could sit for hours, watch and absorb everything going on around me. It was hours spent watching Susie sew, wondering how she did it, and anxiously anticipating a time when I could do the same. It was hours spent in the kitchen, watching, trying to help, but usually just trying to stay out of the way so she wouldn't shoo me out because even as small as I was, there wasn't a whole lot of extra room in our kitchen especially once Susie got started in there! It was hours spent watching everyone else play scrabble or yahtzee because of course my little attempts at words such as "it" or "cat" just couldn't quite compete with Susie's skill at the game! Winter was for family gatherings with the Fredricksons and hoping the weather would hold out even for those! It was for hours spent in Hoyt Lakes, sliding on the hill that was such a short walk away that even the adults would come along occasionally! It was for hours spent sitting quietly on the basement steps listening to Ray practice his music. Sometimes, when I was very small, it was getting a bit lost and overwhelmed by all of the commotion and noise of the adult world, of hiding under the table, off in the corner or peeking around the counter, to finally be noticed, hugged and reassured by Eleanor. To spend time sitting in her lap quietly observing all of the adult family conversation and laughture, understanding little of it, but content to be made a part of it all the same.
Spring was when you got ready for summer, you took Susie home, spent time getting her house and yard ready for the busy months ahead. It was when you got ready for all coming trips and family visits, when you got ready to take Susie fishing, and started planning ahead for all of the graduations, weddings and coming family events. It was too, when you visited the cemetaries to clean them up and get them ready for summer too. It may sound odd, but when I was little, some of my fondest memories were those visits to the cemetary? They were never really somber or sad events then, more like a family outing, going out to Mission, visiting and cleaning up the grave sites, being able to wander through the cemetary, the field and the woods for the afternoon, while Mom and Dad, and Susie often would clean everything up, put out pretty flowers, enjoy the sunshine and the day. And, after Susie's death, Mom and Dad always seemed to enjoy and even look forward to that time they could spend out there working together, remembering the past and Susie. Part of that event included driving all out through Mission township recalling long gone and past places and people.
Summer was filled with the trips, visits, and vacations spent trying to, what seemed to me, cram as many family visits as possible into that short amount of time! Sometimes when I think about it, I think we spent more time on the road visiting everyone than we did at home during the summer months! And, all of those visits of course had to be wedged in in between which berries were ripe where, and the required fishing! Much of the summer visits were divided between Susie's little house and Vern's house out on the lake, with side trips to spend the day visiting Grandpa Workman at the Nursing home in Little Falls, and stops at Dad's other relatives in Brainerd. My childhood summers were spent in a whirlwind maze of families reconnecting after a winter and sometimes years apart. The times at Susie's house in the summer always seemed filled with people coming and going, spilling out of the tiny house to the yard. Boy, it sure got crowded quick in there on the rainy days! It did mean though on the nice days that I could be assured of some extra quarters and encouraged to go uptown and spend them! It was also a treat to get to walk to the movie theater with Sandy and see a movie all by ourselves! Staying overnight at Susie's meant pulling out that big red couch and getting to sleep inside while others camped out in the tent! There were times as we got older, that Sandy and I found the stays at Grandma's a little less interesting and had to find other ways to occupy ourselves while the adults were visiting in the kitchen. This came when we were about 10 and 15, and had to spend a rainy weekend stuck in Grandma's house. Much to our delight we discovered a treasure trove of reading material, spent the entire afternoon engrossed and absorbed in the magazines. Of course, after a while of no words or fighting from us, Mom became concerned... probably that we had found a way to silently kill each other in Grandma's living room!.... Well, needless to say, she did not quite appreciate our reading material as much as we did, and a slight arguement and discussion ensued over us reading Grandma's treasure of True Stories! Grandma Susie must have won though, because we went home with a whole stack of them!
The other part of our time was spent out at Vern's on the lake, which I have to admit that as a child, was much more to my liking! For me, it was suddenly having a large group of children my own age to spend time with, and even having younger ones to at times tease, torment and get into trouble! It was freedom and space to enjoy the summer. It was swimming and bike rides, wandering and romping through the woods, it was bar-b-ques and picnics, and it was still filled with family all around coming and going. My stays out there were for me, some of the greatest pleasures and joys of childhood. There was always something to do, someone to talk to, to play with. And, when the families were together out there, enjoying the summer, the country, I didn't feel any of the other family problems or tensions that were going on, all I felt was happy, loved, and very much a part of a huge loving family!
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