Grandparents

Time with Florence and Newsom Shows
as Remembered by Rheba Kramer Mitchell
The grandkids remember Grandma Florence expected the kitchen floor to be swept after each meal. She expected things to be neat and orderly. She made biscuits every morning with no recipe. Grand kids helped her feed the chickens and then watched Grandpa Newsom milk the two cows. In the kitchen was a sideboard with gravity hoppers for flour and corn meal. They were triggered like the ice tea machines in restaurants today, by pushing against a devise to release the contents. Florence would never cut out her biscuits, she’d pinch the dough of, and turn it quickly two or three times in her hand and turn a a perfectly formed large, flaky biscuit. An art that is lost by most of us today.
After moving to Melville they had no need for a car. They could walk anywhere. Newsom had a little red wagon he would load with milk, eggs, and butter to deliver to their regular customers by pulling it behind him. One of his favorite sayings was "I would rather be hanged in Melville than die a natural death anywhere else." Florence’s saying was, "pretty is as pretty does" meaning actions were more important than looks. She also said, "Beauty knows no pain." If you want to be beautiful you have to suffer a price.
 
as Remembered by Lydia Donaldson Matthews
I have vivid memories of Grandpa and Grandma Shows home in Melville. As a child we visited often and some memories stand out more than others. When we had big family reunions we would be drawn to the railroad track that ran along the banks of the river and behind their home. We would place coins on the track only to watch the trains pass and run and find them. I remember the reunion when (Little Ed) son of Ed Kramer (my great uncle) flew over the house causing it to rock. It was so thrilling to know that he could do that! 
I also remember when Grandpa Shows died and he lay in the coffin in the living room and I wondered how all those relatives could be eating rice and gravy while he lay there dead in the other room. As a child I had never experienced much death much less having the body there at home, something I will never experience again. I remember Grandma Shows and how soft her body was and how she always smelled so sweet. My grandma Lucille was the oldest of the bunch and she often told me stories of how her parents had lost a set of twins and she had to bury them. She even showed me where.