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PAPAW AND MAMAW MEMORIES From Webmaster's Son, Jimmy |
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One of the many advantages of my current job is the time allowed to really ponder on various subjects. You know, time to think while the hands stay busy or the feet do the walking. It's an opportunity to pull up old memories, assess situations, evaluate options, judge actions or in some cases inaction's, and to commune with the Lord. MAMAW AND PAPAW: I guess these names have different meanings to each one of us. In my particular view these are two of the most honored names I can think of. Names that I have given my own mother and father for my children to call. The names stand for two individuals who have gone through life together, through hardships, sorrow and happiness, being faithful to each other, but more importantly, being faithful to our Lord, for oh so many years (until He called them home). (Referring to Dr. and Mrs. B. F. Dearmore, now on the Golden Street). MAMAW AND PAPAW: Names that bring to mind the firm values of a God fearing husband and wife, a family who were dedicated to the Lord and his word, going and doing what they felt the Lord leading them to do, when ever and where ever that might be and the life of 2 people who were not afraid to show or share their love with everyone. Some will say that I am being sentimental in my view and trying to put a halo around them. Well, I guess that could be true, but after all, it is my memory, and it is how I remember both of them, and how I cherish this memory and try to pass it on to my own children. I can still see Papaw sitting in his favorite chair facing the front door, at the house on 6th Avenue, (in Fort Worth, Texas) early in the morning studying his Bible, making notes in the margins and drinking a cup of black coffee. Mamaw is in the kitchen just around the corner, fixing him a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon. As always, Mamaw is humming to herself as she cooks and cleans, and as you would expect, it's a Gospel song she is humming. Outside the kitchen window is a large Fig tree. Birds from all over the neighborhood come here to get into her figs, but she still manages to make fig jelly out of what she picks. For us kids, these were fun times, a big treat for Becky, John Frank
and I was for Papaw to take us "camping." Of course we didn't really go camping, but we
would sit around Papaw and he would spin a tale about us going camping, describing in detail
what the Log Cabin looked like, how the forest and its trees came right up to cabin, etc.
He would then describe the interior of the cabin to include the
fireplace, with the hook for cooking, whose job it was to chop wood, who would do the
cooking, where each of us would sleep. We would then proceed to the best part of any
"camping" trip and that was to fish and hunt. Again he would describe in vivid detail how each of us would
catch the biggest fish on the stream and shoot the best game in the forest, or in some
cases the most dangerous. At some point Mamaw would come in and "kind of" tell Papaw he
was filling our heads with nonsense; of course she said all of that with a smile. Papaw was one of those wise old men you just can't help but Love
and Respect. He had seen enough life to know what was important and what wasn't, he knew
when to speak and when to listen, when to stand up and when to sit down, when to fight and
when not to fight. He knew what was right and what was wrong, but unlike many of us he had
the strength and Faith to stay the course in spite of ridicule, hard times, weariness or
illness. I am now (05-03-1998) 46 years old and to this day I have not met
another individual that was like Papaw, no preacher, no one. Yet at the same time I see Papaw in all of us, Dad & Mom, Uncle
Roy & Aunt Roxie, Aunt Thelma and Uncle Joe, Uncle Henry and Aunt Roberta (now with the
Lord), Aunt Novella (now with the Lord), Aunt Mary (now with the Lord) and Uncle R. L.,
Bill Dearmore, Jimmy Helms, Chester & Johnny Helms, Donnie Dearmore, George Waldrop,
David Waldrop, Richard Waldrop, Angie Muncy, Ronnie Mason, Gail Mason, Susan Dendler,
Brenda and Franklin, Carol Ann, Johnny Dearmore, Becky. Oh . . . I could go on and name
all of us and our children, but one thing for sure, for each of us, Mamaw and Papaw
were part of us, and are in us even today.
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