Donna Epperson personal history Peak

I've been working on a rough draft of a personal history of my grandmother.  Here is a peak at the section I've been working on.

Growing Up

Mondays were laundry days in the Vivian household. Donna‟s grandmother would bring out the washing machine into the kitchen in front of the stove where it was warm. One of the fears that Donna and Donald had growing up was that they would get their hand caught in the electric wringer washer the family had, which was a real plausible fear. Some of the people they knew had that happen to them, and they did not want to have that experience themselves. They would was their clothes in order of whites, then coloreds, then darks because they would use the same water to wash all of their clothes. Since the fire had to be so hot to heat water for the laundry, Mondays were also the day that you would have the smell of fresh baked bread surround you. Just like the human nature in all of us, Donna always wanted some of the white store bought bread growing up.

Donald and Donna got along pretty well.14 Donald was an extremely thoughtful and caring person, but being two years older than Donna, he loved to tease his little sister. There was an area under their house that was their dirt cellar that was full of spiders. Donald would act like he had spiders in his hands and would act like he was going to throw them on her. She could hardly handle that, but she got right back at him. Donald was afraid of the dark, and she used that fear to her advantage. When they were playing together, they would run up and down allies in their bare feet. To get back at him, she would take him down the ally in the dark, and she would leave him there. Donna knew how to hold her own and take care of herself. Aside from picking on each other, they had a lot of fun together because they shared common friends.

During the 1930s and 1940s there were a lot of open fields and lots in the area that had not been developed yet. The neighborhood they lived in was a poor neighborhood where the houses all looked the same, but Donna loved it. It was a great neighborhood to grow up in. They lived about a block from a public service company, a huge building with all kinds of trucks and cars around it. On one side of the building they had a huge area that had grass on it. They would go there and play all kinds of games there. The company was very nice and let them play there. They loved it because it was one of the nicest playgrounds in the area. The railroad ran right by this field, and when the coal trains would go by, the cinders would rain down on them as they played.

They didn't go out to eat, or go to movies, instead they would do things like play kick the can and hide and seek out in these fields. On most days, Donna could hardly wait to get out of school and go play marbles in the dirt. Donna and her friends would ride bikes together. They usually had one bicycle for two of them, so they would put someone on the handlebars and ride together. She also liked to play softball with her friends. There weren't any organized activities, just a group of friends having fun, making up their own games. There was also a dump just west of their house where they would go to play. One time, Donald brought a cow home after he had been playing in the dump to give to his grandmother because she always wanted a cow for her own milk and butter. She had to take it back to where it belonged.

Donna loved to go and visit her Aunt Martie when she was growing up. Aunt Martie's house was a second home for Donna. When Donna was in Junior High School, she would pack her things up on Friday morning, hop on the street car after school and stay with her Aunt Martie and Uncle Tom for the weekend. While she was visiting on these weekends, Martie taught her lot of different things, including how to cook. Martie was always loving and caring and always treated Donna like she was one of her own.