52 Ancestors - no. 30: Lankford Family Reunions (week 14)

Floria Mae [Burnette] and Carroll Harvey Lankford

The theme for the 52 Ancestors challenge week 14 is Favorite Photo: Who is in a favorite photo of yours? Or tell the story of the photo itself—where was it taken, what was the event? Well the photo that came to mind for me was a photo of my paternal grandparents—Carroll Harvey and Floria Mae [Burnette] Lankford—on the occasion of his 72nd birthday. They both died in 1970 and this picture is exactly the way I remember them.

I don’t remember a lot about my childhood but I do remember attending many Lankford family reunions at their house. Grandpa and Grandma lived in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia and every September the whole family gathered there to celebrate his birthday—September 21. Grandpa and Grandma had eight children and they all had children of their own so needless to say it was a large crowd. I’m sure the reunions must have been filled with lots of good food, laughter, and fun, but the only thing I specifically remember is the time I got caught going to the bathroom on the side of the house. Ha!

Grandpa and Grandma with their eight children—front:  Carroll Harvey Jr. (AKA Sport), Grover, Clark, and Sam; back: Liz (twin), Lucile, Grandma (Floria), Grandpa (Carroll Sr.), Alice (twin), and Betty (ca. September 1959)

Grandpa and Grandma lived in the country and the house didn’t have indoor plumbing. Instead, they had a pump well in the backyard and an outhouse in the field with the mule. I hated going to that outhouse! On the particular occasion of my embarrassing moment, I decided when nature called that I wasn’t going to use the outhouse. Instead, I walked to the side of the house and squatted down close to the ground to take care of business. About that time, all of my cousins came running around the corner of the house playing a game of some sort. Oh it was so embarrassing! But I got over it.

On another occasion, I remember my uncles going up in the attic and then hearing lots of chatter and laughter coming from that direction. The next thing you know, they’re throwing the snake that was chasing them around the rafters out the window. My other memories are of the house itself. The house must have had electricity as I remember lights hanging from a cord in the center of each room. It hadn’t seen paint in years. Daddy told me that Grandpa wouldn’t let them paint it. There was a big wooden stove in the kitchen that I remember Grandma cooking at.

After Grandpa and Grandma died, the reunions were moved to my Aunt Lucile’s house in Bairdstown. This picture of the Lankford siblings was taken at one of the reunions held at her house.

Sport, Grover, Betty, Lucile, Sam, Liz, Clark, and Alice

And this is a third picture of the Lankford siblings taken about 2001.

Liz, Betty, Alice, Lucile, Sport, Clark, Grover, and Sam