Williams Family Memories

Laundry day at the Williams’ house

williamsmemories — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:41:34 +0000

Laundry day at our house seemed to begin about 3oclock in the afternoon. All us kids had returned from school. We walked into the family room and saw Margaret ironing clothes. Little did we realize that she had been sorting darks and whites, washing oddles of laundry in the drafty garage, drying all this laundry and bringing it all back into the house by many laundry baskets. She then proceeded to fold all the clothes. Then she had to separate what had to be ironed. So she put all of the folded laundry away and began the task of the ironing. To begin the ironing task she had to sprinkle water all over the wrinkled clothes.Next step was to steam iron the various shirts, blouses, pants, etc. Whew! I am exhausted just thinking about all this. When we walked into the family room this is what we found her doing. She actually seemed to enjoy it. She had the TV on and was watching TV and ironing at the same time. She would accumulate perfectly pressed clothes and put them on hangers. She accumulated a lot too. She enjoyed having us come home because we would talk to her while she ironed. Sometimes she would sing gospel songs while she worked too. She did that a lot and really enjoyed it. Suzie Williams

Freedom to pee

williamsmemories — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:13:53 +0000

I still remember him keeping the portable urinal in his car so he wouldn’t have to stop to take a leak… He also would put his car in neutral when he was going down a hill. Grand pop was the original “efficiency expert”. I still talk about him with my friends and associates. Sometimes the lessons learned from being around a great person aren’t realized until they are gone. We had the best of both…
Chris Williams

6 years ago today

williamsmemories — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:36:13 +0000

Thanks to Uncle Mark for the reminder that 6 years ago today we were all gathered on the Charlestown lawn celebrating his life with a HUGE crab feast. The tables were lined up in a long row and layered down thick with newspapers and those who Grandfather held dear were belly up to the table cracking open his beloved Maryland crabs, toasting beers and telling their favorite story about Grandfather.
Happy Grandfather Day everyone! Let’s all give Grandfather a toast tonight and be thankful of our wonderful family.

Mom’s baking

williamsmemories — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:49:05 +0000

Mom baked on Fridays. Because she was very creative, I think she enjoyed baking all sorts of cakes and pies. She took great pains to make the visually appealing cake, the vanilla cake that was at least 4 inches high or a cake no one had tried to make. Everyone made vanilla and chocolate; Mom made BAked alaskan, Fresh coconut cakes, German chocolate cakes. suzie/mom

What we Williams ate.

williamsmemories — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:51:14 +0000

In response to your request to find out what Williams ate, I contacted Margaret Owens. She was right on the money and told me everything we ate. So, right from her mouth here is the information.

Wedneday night: Mom and Dad entertained a great deal on Wednesday nights. They usually invited doctors or dear friends. Margaret and her husband, James, served a formal dinner of:
drinks in the living room using best crystal
chips and dip served on silver
dinner was served in the dining room, candles, white lines tablecloth, good silverware, silver goblets,fresh greenery centerpiece usually made by Mom.
Crab Imperial or
Fresh Lobster
Dessert: Baked Alaskan
After dinner: cordials in the dining room
sometimes Mom and Dad hired Mr. McCusker to play either fiddle or guitar before dinner.

Other Wednesday evening: Mom and Dad went out to dinner

Sunday:
breakfast:Mom usually made bacon and eggs before 11:30 am mass at St. Charles
lunch/dinner: Mom and Dad and the children often went to GrandMom and Grand dad Vain’s for dinner of:
baked chicken
Beef Dumplings or
Ham sanwhichs

On other days Mom and Dad would take us to GrandMom and Grand dad Wiliams for lunch/dinner. She was also a good cook. Food served there was often:
all veggies cooked fresh out of the garden
Pork chops
corn on the cob
beans
both fresh apple pies and fresh cherry pies (fruits from their garden)

Fridays:

Mom often baked cakes and pies. One day it might be German chocolate cake and another day fresh coconut cake or coconut pie or vanilla cake or chocolate cake.
On Friday evenings Mom and Dad often took us to church for Friday night dinner. Margaret says we often ate lunch there as well.

Breakfast:
Now I remember the work wheel. We always had to take turns making breakfast. One week charlie made breakfast, one week David made breakfast, one week I made breakfast and one week Mark would make breakfast. This only meant that we made coffe, put the Cherrios on the table, put some bowls out, some spoons and that was it.
Margaret said when she came to work early she made a big breakfast.

typical lunch during the week or in the summer:
fresh homemade waffles dripping with homemade warm maple syrup or King corn syrup or
Either Williams grandparents or Vain grandparents fresh tomatoes and out of the garden lettuce with white toast, lots of McCormick Mayonaissee and extra bacon.

Wednesdays (when not entertaing)
Margaret served Charlie’s favorite:
Fry chicken OFTEN
hot rolls
or
Roast Beef, mashed potatoes homemade of course by Margaret Owens
green beans and often homemade from scratch apple pie
or
Liver
or
Fresh Fish caught at Bodkin Creek. The fish was either trout or sunnys.

All of the above information is right from Margaret Owens. I usually just call her and she remembers EVERYTHING. Her mind is crystal, crystal clear. She would love to hear from all of you. Let me know if you need her phone number.

aunt suzie
9-13-09

Email letter from Marlene, Grandmother’s cousin

williamsmemories — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:55:31 +0000

Susan:

The two in our family who are just like your brother David, are your grandmother’s (Lizzy Vain) sister Anna Frances Schepleng’s grandson and great grandson. So these two sisters both had off spring that act an do the same thing.

The story about the barn burning – your father always told us that he took the two boys with him when he made house calls to nearby farms in the Pikesville / Owings Mills / Reisterstown area. He said they always managed to get into some sort of trouble. Then he told us about the time he was visiting a patience on a nearby farm and Charlie and David went wondering all over the place. Next thing he knew they were calling the fire department because they hat sat the barn on fire.

H told us of another time when they had gotten into a can of paint an beautifully painted each other a brilliant red and he had to take them to the hospital to have the paint coat removed. I remember too the time that Mark was cutting the lawn and was stung by a bee. He went unconscious and some one ran in for your father and he gave him an injection and brought him around. He said if this had not been done immediately it could have been fatal.

Marlene

letters!

williamsmemories — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:50:45 +0000

Grandma reading her beloved family letters, September 2009

Shaving cream!!

williamsmemories — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:45:09 +0000

One of my favorite memories of Grandpop is the way he LOVED to wake up all the grandchildren with the ‘ol shaving cream in the ear routine. We would be sound asleep in sleeping bags on the family room floor (since there were so many of us we didn’t usually get bedrooms!) and then all the sudden you would feel the tingling, cold buzz of shaving foam being squirted directly into your ear canal. And there would be Grandpop with a wide grin on his face laughing at all of our reactions.

Marlene, Mom’s cousin……

williamsmemories — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:38:27 +0000

Billy Vain has a question. He wants to know if you are the same cousin Marlene that got locked out of a cemetery? He said “aunt Margaret” , our Mom,told him all about it. He said you had to crawl over a fence to get out of the cemetery. Is that correct? Just reply to the blog.

Trips on the Hotspur

williamsmemories — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:45:24 +0000

Some of the fondest memories I have of the grandparents were sailing. We would take the Hotspur to meet up with the other members of the Yacht club. While grandpop had to motor out of the channel, he always did his best to use the sail as much as possible. I can remember grandmom was the master organizer, ensuring we had all the necessary supplies and some special treats as well. It amazed me the things she was able to whip up on the boat. It would take hours to get everything loaded and ready before we could hit the water. Once we set sail, grandpop would spend a lot of time reciting stories of the seas (Bloody Point, Red at night…). I learned so much about the waters and ecosystems just from listening to his stories and it was a big reason I focused my studies and research on oceanography (zooplankton). Once we met up with the group, we would tie on to each others boats and set the anchor. That’s when the real fun began. Grandpop let us take the dingy onto shore and we would explore the cove for hours. When we weren’t exploring we were swimming around the boats. One time while I was treading water, grandpop asked me where I thought the toilets on the boats flushed to and began to laugh. It must not have bothered me too much because I didn’t stop swimming. Each night I would fall asleep to the sounds of the water and the gentle rocking of the boat. Since then I have been on various ships including research vessels, but those experiences don’t compare to sailing with the grandparents.

Amy