Grandma White

My mother's mother, aka Grandma White, celebrating her birthday in May 1977.


Is Mom singing or catching flies?

Thanksgiving 2010

My Grandpa, Dad, me and Brett.
1968

I hope you had a nice thanksgiving.

Licked!

Me getting licked by my Grandparents dog.

Grandparents

My Grandpa, Dad and Grandma posing with me.

The Piano

Playing piano with my Grandma.
My guess is that this is around 1967.

Is it just me pr is the lamp shade upside down on the lamp?

Happy Birthyday Mom

I know I am a day early on all of the birthday posts but I figure I better do them while I am thinking about them verses forgetting them and doing them three days late.

Mom celebrates her birthday tomorrow.
She is still in El Salvador right now.

In the above slide she is celebrating her 30th birthday and the year was 1978.
That is her Mother sitting next to her, my Grandma White.

I think my Aunt Carol made this very special cake for her.
It is a classic "Over the Hill" cake but with a twist.

It was made completely of foam.
Mom tried and tried to cut the cake but could not.
The cake would mash down and then it would spring back up.

"Come on old lady!" "Are you to old to even cut a cake?" were remarks that could be heard from shouted from loving family members.

I thought it was great.
I also thought this was one of my Aunts best cakes, pure icing!
All us kids licked it clean that afternoon.



Here is Mom on her first birthday.
She has the lamb cake that our family traditionally has to celebrate the first year of life.

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Follow up

Chad's birthday is today and he and his wife, Cathy, stopped by to say hello.

"Hello!"

Cousins 1965

Christmas 1965 has me with my cousins on my Mom's side of the family.
I am on my Grandma Whites lap.
And now I will take a stab at the rest,
Rhonda, Sondra, Dee Dee, Bret, Steve and Doug.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The food spread in 1979!
My Grandma on the left followed by my Mom's sister Carol.
Grandpa is at the head of the table and Aunt Loraine is on the right.

I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving and for all you kids who aren't allowed to sit at the grownups table I hope you have a fun cousin to entertain you.

Like my cousin Dee Dee!
I noticed a toy laying on the hearth guarded by a rabbit.

A Fisher Price movie!

You can see other posts about this great toy HERE and HERE.

Grandma White's 1978

Just a few more days until turkey day.
This is my Mom's side of the family at Grandma White's house and I can't tell but it looks like Grandpa Chet is getting ready to pulling the table cloth out from under the dishes.
What a riot!

Time To Start Setting Up

It is time to clean out the garage and set up for Thanksgiving.

Grandma White oversees the food on the table before calling everyone else to come sit down.

I can almost taste her deviled eggs now!

My brother Brett is on the left with Chad back by Grandma.

I am in the center with my cousin Bret wearing his Long John silvers hat.

I love these pictures that are jammed full of life in the past.

What else is in this picture?

The family portrait.

Dad, Mom, Me and Brett in the picture and the addition of Chad tucked in the frame on the side.

Talk about the 70's!

Look how Mom has the draw pulls decorated. Sunflowers!

I think this was in Brett's room.

Beside the flower dresser I see Dads screen.

This is what we used until Al Gore invented the internet to look at our slides.

I see his tripod leaning next to the screen.

The meat grinder.

I think this processed Monroe for us.

A nice glass piece.

Mom had three boys and I dare you to count all the glass sitting around in this picture.

I think she bought it so we would break it and then she would have an excuse to whip us.

Looks like my cousin Bret brought a spare pirate hat in case his was damaged during the day.

We called this the "Jolly Green Giant's toilet paper roll".

Dad was a printer and this was an end roll off a web press.

When we wanted to draw we just yanked on it and took as big a piece as we liked.

This trouble light was also used for a tanning bed.

We would replace the bulb with a tanning bulb and lay in a chair under it.

The trusty binoculars hang here as well.

We Butlers are a rough bunch.

So make sure you grab a Pepsi and not the gas can when getting your beverage.

Looks like a mini Louisville slugger bat is in the white bucket.

The trip to the past is over now so go about life in the present now.

Poplar Log Cemetery

After we left the Old Mulkey cemetery I called my Dad and had him meet us at the family burial grounds, Poplar Log Cemetery.

Dad brought mom and my brother Chads kids with him.



I had Dad tell us stories we had heard before but we love to hear again. Also I want my kids to know the stories so that they can pass them down to their kids.


In the picture above Dad is telling us about his youngest brother, William Med, who only lived for a day.

These two headstones are for Dad's Uncles who had pneumonia but went ahead and checked their traps in the winter and died while still young boys.

Listen to your Mother boys is the lesson here.

I think this is another one of my Grandmas brothers.
This one relative needs a whole post to himself.
Fear, murder, revenge and a shootout at the courthouse is the summary of his story.
Check back later for the story in its entirety complete with the newspaper clippings.

Left to right: Levi, Joel, Me, Zach and Dad in front of my Grandparents grave.

Here are my Grandparents in front of their grave.
Dad said they were proud of it. I thought it was a little creepy at the time.
Now whenever I am at the grave side I think of this picture.

Me with my Grandma.

My Grandpa name is John Turner.
My Dad is James Ted and we named Joel, Joel Ted to keep the J.T.s Running in the family.


Many stories here.
The kid who died from eating to many apples and died from diarrhea.
The relative who died from riding his horse while drunk and ran into a tree.
Not to mention the town drunk named Tanglefoot.

Visiting Down Home

Me hanging out with Grandpa.

One of my Aunt Betty's and her son Little Joe.
My proud Dad in the background.

My Uncle Joe.


I think I can hear him growling as he holds me up in the air.


Grandma and my cousin Angie.

Angie is Uncle Ike's daughter.

This is my other Aunt Betty, Uncle Ike's wife, with her daughter Angie.

The Carters Part 2

Here I am visiting with the Carter girls again.

Look at their faces. You can tell they were really glad to see me.

Here we all are sitting on the couch allowing the media a photo op.

They do seem to be a good nature-ed group don't they?

All little girls have a desire to hold a baby.

Enough girl time pass me over to an Uncle.

Here I am with my Uncle Leslie and it looks like we are in my Grandparents kitchen.

I now know where I get the urge to collect from.

This picture reminds me that my Grandma collected plates and rolling pins too.

Down Home 2

Here I am sitting on my Grandma's knee.
Grandpa is bedside us with my Mom next to him.
The other guy is my Uncle Ike.

Ike has a website but I couldn't find it today to link to it.
I think maybe the FED's finally shut it down or something.
I know schools banned it so it was just a matter of time before the FED's closed it down.

I mean no one in America should be able to post pictures of themselves barbecuing opossums on a grill.
Nasty!
Although I did have a piece of barbecued raccoon one year at the family reunion.
Sorry Ike, maybe your site should be allowed.
If I get a good link I will post it some time.


Same group but Mom is taking the picture and Dad joined the posing fun.

Grandpa Butler

This is John Turner Butler dressed and ready for World War I.

He never saw any action though because he contracted influenza.

He survived influenza but 251,653 other soldiers didn't.

116,708 United States soldiers died in the first world war so almost twice as many soldiers died from influenza than from the war.

So Grandpa fought and won is own war.

Grandma White 1980

I have come to the conclusion that Chad must be drinking something nasty.
Look at the expression on my Grandma's face. It says "Ewww!"

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She hated to have her picture taken so maybe the face is meant for my Dad.

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1980. Hmm? This must have been while my Mom was working for the Secret Service.

3 Generations

Me, my Dad and my Grandpa.
I am guessing this is around 1966.

Grandparents

Here are my Grandparents standing next to their tombstone.

I remember Dad saying that they were proud of it.

It seemed odd to me.

Here I am with my Grandma.

It seemed odd to me but when I visit their graves I now can picture them their from these pictures.

It is fun to visit the cemetery in Thompkinsville my Dad has a lot of strange and interesting stories to tell about relatives buried there but those are stories to tell in later posts.