Grandma

101 years ago this past Friday (July 27th), my grandma was born.  This is my grandmother on my mom's side.  She was born Clara Flossine Rosan, in DuQuoin, IL.

I grew up with the normal two grandma's.  And while I loved each one of them, I have more memories and stories of mom's mom.  Dad's mom lived up north, and I only saw her a couple of times a year (on average). But mom's mom lived just down the road from me, so I saw her all the time.  For the purpose of this particular blog, anytime I refer to "grandma", it will mean my mom's mom.  :)

Grandma Flossine (mom's mom)

Grandma Leona (dad's mom)

   












Things I remember most about Grandma, pretty much all involve church.  We went every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.  On Sunday mornings, dad would take me (and later me and Preston) down to Grandma and Pop's house and drop me off.  Then Pop would drive the three of us into town for church.  Sunday School was first... Grandma always taught a class, so we would get there earlier than most people.  We'd go to our separate classes and then meet back up in "big church" for the worship service.  We always sat in the same spot each week (middle section, 2 or 3 rows from the back).  I could always count on candy or gum being in Grandma's purse (I distinctly remember packages of Smarties candy that I would unroll and eat during the sermon).  I don't really remember Sunday nights prior to being a teenager (the youth activities were always on Sunday nights).  Wednesday nights we (Grandma, Pop and myself... Preston later) always went to the Wednesday night dinner in the church basement.  We always sat in the same place there, too.  ha ha.  First row of tables by the windows, about halfway down the row, and facing the windows.  After dinner, we went to our respective activities.  For kids, it was all of the missions organizations (GA's for girls).  I really do not know what Grandma and Pop did during that time.  I don't know if they had men's and women's Bible study... or maybe they just went to the prayer meetings/business meetings, etc.  It was probably a combination of all of that.  I also can remember going to the funeral home often after a Wednesday night at church...it would have been the visitation for someone that they knew (most likely a church member).

One of my favorite memories, is "helping" Grandma bake cookies in her kitchen.  This really was her doing all the work....and me eating all the leftover dough.  ha ha!  Sometimes she'd get out the cookie cutters, though, and let me make the shapes.  My favorite cookies that she used to make were her raisin cookies.  They were really big and had gooey raisin stuff inside.  There was no written recipe for these (that I have ever found).  I did find a handwritten list of ingredients for her sugar cookies, though.  A handful of years ago I tried to make the raisin cookies.  I used her sugar cookie ingredients and combined it with a recipe I found online for the raisin stuff.  It took several tries...but I finally got them to taste exactly like Grandma's.  :)

In 1987, we gave Grandma a book to fill out, called "Getting to Know Grandma."  I am so glad she filled it out.  It's an amazing piece of history, and something that can be passed down through the generations to come.  Several years ago I made copies for all of the Carlisle cousins, so they can also enjoy it and pass it down through their families, as well.

Here are some pages and excerpts from the book...

the house that Grandma was born in, DuQuoin IL (photo taken 2009)

Clara Flossine Rosan, probably 1912

"I was born at home, as was everyone in those days.  My mother had a very difficult delivery, and the doctor said she should never have any more children.  The doctor owned one of the few automobiles in the city of DuQuoin at that time.  When my mother called him, he was in Christopher, but they said he arrived at our house thirty minutes later (some automobile for 1911).  My brother Nolan's comment, on being told he had a little sister was, 'Take her back!'"


"I had a brother, Weston Lively Rosan, who died at age two.  I don't remember the date of his birth, but he was the first child of my parents and Nolan was born about two months after his death.  His grave is in Nine Mile Cemetery, near DuQuoin.  All of his toys were put on top of his grave.  Many, many years later, when I was about 12, I visited his grave and there was a little white lamb (porcelain, I think) still there."

Norton, Nolan and Clara Flossine Rosan

"Our house had a big front porch.  There was always a swing and some rockers on it, and the family spent much time together on it in the summer.  My dad built a 'summer kitchen' on the back of the house for mom to cook in during the summer.  Her only method of cooking was a coal stove, which would heat up the whole house every time a meal was cooked.  Mom still would get so very hot, cooking in the summer kitchen, but the house stayed cool.  I had a room of my own, from about age 14.  There was a beautiful old dresser in it, that was the first piece of furniture mom and dad bough when they were married (1898).  I wish I had it now."

the house in Christopher, that Grandma grew up in (photo taken 2008)

"One time Norton and I got into the pantry and got a big box of coconut and ate almost the entire box.  It was a round tin container and held a lot.  I didn't need to be punished.  I was sick as a dog!  For many years after that, until I was an adult, every time I smelled coconut, I would get sick."

"There was a man who often passed our house, walking, and carrying a sack of flour on his shoulder.  Norton and I called him 'sack of flour.'  One day when we saw him coming, we laid banana peels in a straight line across the sidewalk, and then ran into the house and peeped out of a window to see him fall.  Naturally, he didn't fall, because the banana peels were so obvious.  He just stepped over them and went on his way."

"In grade school, I once won a 'Liberty Bell', which was a bronze medal given for a certain grade point average.  In high school, I was almost always on the honor roll, during my Junior and Senior years.  Also, during my Senior year, I was on the Shorthand Team.  We won District and Regional meet and were chosen to go to State, but we didn't place there."

Senior picture

"Church was practically our whole life.  We attended Sunday School, morning and evening services, Wednesday night prayer meetings.  When Sunday came, there was no question of would we go or who would go.  It was Sunday and we went.  Church socials, Sunday School and B.Y.P.U. parties were our main social events, also.  I was saved at age 8, during a Revival, baptized shortly after started working in S.S. at about 12 or 13 (playing piano for lower age groups).  My greatest desire is for all my children and grandchildren to be Christians and serve their Lord faithfully all their lives."

"When I was old enough, I helped with the ironing -- handkerchiefs, pillow slips -- flat pieces, and then later on, my own clothes.  When I was in high school, I was expected to make my bed before I left for school.  I remember, one morning I slipped off without making my bed.  I got about a block from home and heard Mom calling me back.  I never tried that again.  I also did a lot of the grocery shopping.  I would stop on the way home from school and bring meat for supper.  One time when I was about in the third grade, Mom had told me to get pork chops.  When I got to the store, I told the man I couldn't remember whether mom wanted 'pork-beef' or 'beef-pork'.  It took a long time for them to forget that!"

"Every summer was hard, because the mines would come out on strike on April 1.  Sometimes Dad could find work, but not always.  One summer he answered an ad in a magazine and sold washboards, house to house.  They sold for $1.25.  I don't know how much had had to pay for them.  One day he had been out all day (walking) and had sold only one.  He laid the money on the kitchen table when he came in.  When Mom was cleaning off the table after supper, somehow by accident, she threw away the money.  It literally made her sick, but they never found it.  One other time, when I was about 12, I needed a winter coat.  There was no money for one.  My mother took her coat, made it to fit me.  She was not able to go anyplace that winter, because she had no coat to wear."

"There were no such things as vacations in those days.  Since we had no car, I remember riding on the train to DuQuoin, to visit Grandmother Lively.  We would get off the train at St. John, about 3 miles north of DuQuoin, and then we would have to walk about a mile down a country road to get to Grandmother's house.  Mom, Norton and I were walking down that road one day, when we imagined we saw some gypsies.  Norton and I came to a screeching halt and wouldn't go a step further.  Finally, Mom said if they started toward us, she would hit them over the head with her travelling bag, and that satisfied us.  I think it was that same trip that Nort took the rake, went to the yard, which was pretty high with weeds and said he was going snake-hunting.  Guess what.  He found one.  He dropped the rake and came running back into the house."

The Rosan's

"I was always a little afraid of my Dad.  As far as I can remember, he never punished me.  All he had to do was look at me, and that was enough.  He could fix anything that was broken.  He was always busy around the house.  He was a very dedicated Christian.  He always read the newspaper from cover to cover.  When he was reading, I would comb and brush his hair, wash his face -- come to think of it, he was pretty patient, wasn't he?  I almost always went with him when he would go to town, or just for a walk.  One time, Norton and I were in the yard playing when a horse and buggy drove up in front of the house.  Dad got out of it and both his hands were wrapped in bandages to his elbows.  He had been burned at the mine.  He worked very hard all his life.  He was always whistling.  We could hear him coming, about a block away, and always whistled while he worked."

"Her kindness and thoughtfulness toward everyone and her deep love and concern for her children.  She worked very, very hard to provide them with the very best that she could with limited means and no modern conveniences.  I loved her very much, but I'm sorry to say, I don't remember ever telling her that I did." (about her mother)

"There was always a ball game going on in the neighborhood.  I usually played with Norton and Maxine.  I've never been able to figure out why I was always the one who chased the balls, but 'my bats' never came around."

"When I went to business college, I had hopes of becoming a secretary and making my own money.  I took a Civil Service exam while I was there.  After I finished the course and was back home, I received a telegram, offering me a job at the Shawnee Indian Reservation in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  Naturally, Mom and Dad thought that was too far away from home.  Later, after I was married, I received another call, which I also turned down.  Later, both Grandfather and I were sorry and wished we had gone and made a new life for ourselves."

"We were sitting in the porch swing on our front porch when he asked me if I would marry him.  After he left, I went in the house and woke up my mother and told her what had happened.  She told me later that she cried the rest of the night. She also told me that the first time he came to pick me up for our first date - after we left, she went out to the outhouse and cried and cried, because she intuitionally 'knew' he was the one who would take me away."

"It was a furnished 3-room apartment, upstairs.  The family that owned it lived downstairs.  The living room was furnished with wicker furniture.  The kitchen had a breakfast set, a small utility table, small gas stove and sink.  It also had a bathroom, my first." (talking about the first place she and Grandpa lived in, in Centralia, IL)

"From Centralia, we moved back to Christopher when Arthur was a baby (1935). Grandfather asked to be transferred, because he felt I needed to be close to my mother, for the help she could give me with the baby. We stayed there until February 1937, when he was transferred to Herrin.  In March 1949, we moved to Ferges."

The house Grandma and Grandpa had in Christopher (photo taken 2008)

"Although no one in my family was in it, I remember World War 1.  Dad would take Norton and me to the train station to see soldiers leaving for the war.  I remember the men hanging out the train windows, waving goodbye.  People on the platform of the station waving and crying.  During World War 2, I remember the coupons necessary to buy shoes, sugar, gasoline and tires."

the house in Ferges (you can see the old Ferges School across the road on the left of the picture)

"My parents were most influential.  I wish even today that I could be more like them."

a later shot of the Ferges house (Ferges School still on the left)

"I always wanted to play the pipe organ and be a great singer.  I didn't have the money or time away from family to accomplish these things."

the Ferges house in 2012 (rumor is the owner do not even live there, they have moved across the road and obviously do not take care of this house)

You can see the large hole next to the front window.  The downed trees are leftover from the "inland hurricane" in 2008, and have never been picked up.  There are also a couple of holes in the roof, due to tree limbs falling in that same storm.

"Running water, the washer and dryer, and vacuum have kept my life from being filled with drudgery, as my mother's was."

And then here are some interesting little facts about costs of the day, during the years Grandma was growing up...

"Gas -- 25 cents per gallon
Clothes -- shoes - $5, dress - $3 or $4, hat - $2
Cars -- $500 to $600"

What you could buy for...

"A penny? -- A pencil, an all-day sucker, a postage stamp, stick of chewing gum.
A nickel? -- An ice cream cone, candy bar, pack of chewing gum, writing tablet, a better pencil, sack of popcorn or peanuts.
A dime? -- Eskimo Pie, loaf of bread, 3 strands of embroidery thread."

Now are some of my favorite pictures of Grandma...with or without other people in the pics!  :)

at my parent's wedding with dad's parents, too

with the 1969 Valiant...that eventually became my first car  :)

with Pam and Arthur

with Danielle

with the grandchildren (before me, Brian or Preston), probably 1975

with Brian

Oh...the memories in this chair!  :)

In the kitchen

Grandchildren minus Danielle and Kent, looks like about 1996

with Art

high school graduation

I love this one, because this is Grandma on the far right, sitting on her dad's lap.

Grandma and Pop leaving for their honeymoon

There are sooooooooooo many more pictures I could put on here...but I probably have way too many already.  So I'll stop and leave you with this.  Grandma was an amazing person.  She was kind, thoughtful, and loving.  She loved her family most of all, and would have done anything for any of us.  She is greatly missed.