Do you have an Aunt Woody?

Clara Mae Riggs (1907-1988) and Gladys Naomi Riggs (1913-1990)

 

Do you have an Aunt Woody and Aunt Gladys who live next door to each other? I do and love and miss them as they have now passed on.  But I have a few memories of them from when I lived in Texas. They lived in Oklahoma and I was able to visit them a few times, back in the 70's. They are my grandmother's sisters and granny would tell fun stories of growing up with them. 

At one time during their teen-age years there was this dress they all love and would borrow from each other. One night all three girls wanted to wear the dress and I guess they fought over it, well you can image what happened. No more dress, it got shredded. They laughed and giggled over that story many times.

My grandmother moved to Califorina and Aunt Woody and Aunt Gladys married had families of there own and somehow moved next door to each other. This is when I new them, as neighbors.

Aunt Woody's real name is Clara Mae (Riggs) Woodring. As you can guess she got her nickname from her married  name.

         (Aunt Woody at her house.)

When I would visit I was married to my first husband and had my first daughter, so she and I would drive up to Oklahoma and stay with Aunt Woody.  Oh, I loved her house. She would tell my daughter she could have any food in the house as long as she stayed in the kitchen to eat. Aunt Woody made sure we had full tummys, she was a good cook, like my grandmother.  We would walk over to Aunt Gladys through the back door. No fences were there, but in the back of Aunt Gladys' yard, there was a storm shelter in case of tornados. So dusty down there, and luckily we never saw a tornado when we visited. 

Noble, Oklahoma is so small that we would walk over to Uncle JE's plumbing shop to give him his lunch.  Some days he would close down for lunch and come home.

At 10:00 a.m. sharp Aunt Woody and Aunt Gladys, each in their own homes would watch a soap opera and it was like the town closed down. No one was allow to call each other for that hour.

But by the time it was over, got lunches made and some phone calling done, all in time for the noon hour.  

One time we were there for Easter, we went to their church and afterwards, cousins came from Oklahoma City and we had an egg hunt. My daughter had a blast meeting her Oklahoma cousins, Jay, Jeff and Jan. They are Aunt Gladys' grandchildren.

Clara married Pete Woodring and had one son, Joe.

Gladys married JE Jordan and has one son, Sonny.

Interesting enough that each son, married and has 3 children.

           (Aunt Woody,Uncle Pete and Joe)    

I still keep in touch with my cousins from there and am glad that we can visit through facebook.

We also got to go to a football game, when the twins, (Jay and Jeff) were in high school.  Towards the end of the game, some men came over and told my cousin to get the women out as soon as the game was over, as they heard their might be a big fight. That never happen to me before, so we all left quickly and were so happy nothing happen.

Granny and her sisters were very crafty, they could make the newest craft and it would turn out great. I think they would of love how we scrapbook.

Their were 8 girls and 3 boys in that family. Could you imagine growing up in the early 1900's and 1920's with this fun group? Good times and hard times, as they lived through the dust bowl, the great depression, WWI andWWII, time periods.

Sometime I will have to write about the 2 uncles that I knew.

To Uncle Pete, Aunt Woody, Uncle JE and Aunt Gladys: love and miss you and can't wait to see you on the other side some day.

                                                                                                                                                                         

Aunt Gladys, Uncle JE and Sonny.

                                Uncle JE (on couch) and Uncle Pete (in chair)

Aunt Woody (sitting in the chair) and Aunt Gladys (on the arm of the chair). These were taken in Aunt Gladys' house.

(Lea, if you or anyone else reads this and knows of my Aunts, please comment and leave your story, so I know how you remember them.  If you have pictures, that would be nice too. Thanks.)