Judson Moncure

The youngest

2007-10-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

Imagine having your last child in the same week that your oldest child gets married?! That's what
one of my grandmothers did. Amazing.

The post office

2007-10-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Years ago, people found employment where their family worked or where their friends works. Three of my uncles worked for the post office (Bruce, Jack and Marshall). I believe that they followed in the footsteps of their grandfather (Judson), who -- I think -- worked for the post office. I can't think of any others in the family that have grouped together in one company or profession.

North Carolina

2007-08-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Although my father called Elmira, NY home, he was actually born in North Carolina. His father was born and raised in North Carolina. I "think" he met my grandmother when she traveled down South for school. I think...I could be wrong.

He was a handsome man, who looked great in a fedora. I know that from the few photos of him that I've seen. I don't know what all he did for a living, but I know he worked as a driver for a family at least for a while.

As far as I know, his parents lived all their lives in North Carolina. Searching the U.S. Census records for people who lived in their town, they seemed to be the only family there with their last name. That mystifies me. I wonder if they lived in Kinston all their lives. If not, where had the lived before that? And did they have relatives? What was my great-grandmother's maiden name?

Louisa and Justafus (spelling???) had two sons. The Census records not only showed the four of them, but also a fifth person who lived in the house. Was that a relative? The Census records indicate "no," but relatives have thought the answer is "yes."

In 2001, I traveled to Kinston in order to search the records there. I looked at the Census records and death records. (A librarian at the community college was very helpful in giving me pointers. She ensured that my brief time there paid off.) At city hall, I checked the cemetery records and found their graves. Since I was unfamiliar with the cemeteries there, a maintenance man came and escorted me to the graves. Louisa had died first and she had a headstone. He said a few years later and did not have headstone. They said that he is buried in the same larger plot, but don't know which specific grave. As I stood there, I pulled out my cell phone and called an aunt. "Guess where I am?"

Numbers

2007-07-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

The story goes that my dad would dream numbers. In the old days, well before I was born and long before the state lotteries, playing "the numbers" was something that people did. Evidently he would dream numbers, and other people would play them and win. When he dreamed the number "1528," he kept the number for himself and played it every way (combination possible), but he didn't win anything. Yet 1528 turned out to be an important number. It was the number of the next house that the owned.

Uncle Gene

2007-07-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

I remember very little about my godfather. I know that he was friends with my father for many years. I know that when I was born that he opened a bank account for me (or gave money to have a bank account opened for me). I believe it was a small amount of money, but it did set me on a path of saving money.

The only advice I remember from Uncle Gene is to never post bail for anyone, including him. (I don't remember what caused him to give me that advice.) The idea is that no matter how well you know the person, you can't trust the person will do what s/he is suppose to do when out on bail. Rather than chancing it, let the person stay in jail...even if it is a close relative. (BTW I don't believe that he was ever in trouble with the law.) I have repeated that advice to others, often in the form of "don't get into trouble 'cause I won't post bail for you because my godfather said...."

Live Earth & my grandparents

2007-07-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was 07-07-07 and the Live Earth concerts. The concerts were meant to build more awareness of how we can have a positive impact on the Earth and hopefully help to mitigate the global climate crisis. As I thought about the event today, my mind began to think about how my grandparents lived. Two of them were born in 1889, when life was much more low-tech. Some of the things they did are things we're now being told to do in order to have less of a impact on the Earth. They:

Composted (although they didn't call it that)
Used cloth napkins every day
Used a clothes line for drying clothes (and in the winter, hung clothes to dry in the cellar)
Planted trees to shade the house and keep it cool in the summer
Had a vegetable garden (at least for a few years)

Those are the things that come quickly to mind. Of course, that generation also did things that harmed the Earth (like dumping flood damaged furnishings in the Chemung River).

They also did things that we now know were healthy:

Ate their big meal at noon (a habit from when my grandfather worked evening at the Star-Gazette)
Ate local produce
Got regular exercise by doing yard-work on their property

But they also smoked. That was "in" and not thought to be harmful. My grandmother never had cancer. My grandfather did, but it was not lung cancer.

I do want to imitate the things they did that were positive and learn from the things they did that were not. If I can do that, I think I'll be a better person.

The aunts who weren't aunts

2007-07-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

The word "aunt" in my world was applied to women who close friends of the family, but not blood relatives. It confused some of my friends. So Aunt Jenny (Myers) and Aunt Stella (Blanford) for example were not blood relatives, but they were treated like blood relatives. My godmother (Evelyn Johnson) was also referred to as "aunt." The "aunt" honor was only bestowed on a few women, who likely were my mother and grandmother's best female friends.

The only man I remember being an uncle who was not a blood relative, was my godfather (Gene Fairfax).

More about Violet

2007-07-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

I did not describe what Violet looked like. She was under five feet in height. (Was it 4'9"? I've lost that detail.) I knew her as thin, but supposedly she was heavier at some point in her life. I always thought that mean really fat, but looking at old photos, I don't see any photos of her really heavy. (My mother mentioned that Jenny Myers, Stella Blanford and Violet all were heavy at the same time. And were hard to tell apart if you saw them from behind! If you imagine the three women in similar attire, I can see where that might be true.)

Violet:

Wore glasses.
Smoked.
Had long hair gray and black hair. I don't remember exactly how she wore it when she got older, but I'm thinking it was braided then placed into a bun.
Had a big and pleasant smile.
Was physically very strong.
Did not have her back teeth (I know that from what I've heard, not because I remember it)

What else should I say about her?

Was a good cook and I have some of her cookbooks and a few of her utensils, etc.
Liked to bake.
Liked working in the yard.
Even in her older years, would paint rooms, etc.
Quilted (and I have some of those).
Was Protestant and in her later years attended the Wesleyan Church.

Enough about her for now...

Violet Mae

2007-06-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

Violet Mae was born in 1889 in Canton, PA. Her mother was married twice once to a man with the last name of Carey and the other to a man with the last name of Bright. Violet had one sister, named Frances (or Francis; I think the "e" may be more correct).

As an adult, Violet lived and worked in Troy, PA which is 10 miles north of Canton. At one point, I know that she worked in a local hotel. She married Moncure (Monty) and after having a child, they moved to Elmira, NY. In Elmira, they lived on the northside and then on the southside. They were one of the first black families on the southside.

I don't know if Violet worked in Elmira. I do know that she belonged to a few social/church groups. I do know that she was a gardener. At one point, she and Monty had extensive flower and vegetable gardens. By the time I was a young child, the vast gardens had been replaced with grass, flowers, and bushes. A peaceful and relaxing yard (three lots), but one that required a lot of work.

One neighbor told me of the first time she met my grandmother. She said this woman came over to introduce herself straight from working in the yard (and carrying a trowel or something). I think this new neighbor was a bit startled at first by my grandmother and then pleased to be introduced to a caring and outgoing neighbor.

My favorite story about my grandmother is going out into a neighboring field and picking apples for making apple pies.

After my grandfather retired, the two of them traveled to Florida on vacation 2 or 3 times. I don't know how much time they spent in Florida or exactly who they visited. I suspect that they visited people they knew who had winter homes in Florida. Violet was dark skinned (partially due to spending so much time outdoors), while my grandfather was very, very light skinned. Back in the 1950s, they got a few "double takes" when they traveled down South! I don't know if they ever felt like they were in danger. I have a feeling that it was something they chuckled over.

I should tell one more story. After my grandfather died, my grandmother drove his car for a while (Hudson?). It was a heavy vehicle. One day, we went to the bank. My grandmother drove, my mother was also in thefront seat and I was in the back. My grandmother pulled into a space in the bank's parking lot, but not far enough into the space. So she tried again...but this time hit the gas when she should have hit the brake. We went through the bushes that bordered the parking lot, drove across the street (thankfully hitting no cars) and stopping on the other side. The police did come, but I don't think any tickets were given. Her insurance had to replace the bushes she plowed through. For years, we pointed to those bushes and said they were "ours."

Violet spent the last few years of her life in a state hospital, suffering from hardening of the arteries and dementia. Prior to that, she lived with us (my parents and I) for part of a year, but that proved too stressful. She died in 1971.

The beginning

2007-06-30T13:26:00.001-07:00

While walking recently through the National Museum of the American Indian, I remembered (again) that I know stories about my ancestors that may die with me. I feel the need to write them down and have decided to write them as blog posts. Hopefully, I be able to keep momentum with this and actually get a lot of stuff written that might be useful to other relatives.

One of the concerns in doing this is disclosing enough info, but not too much (that could potentially be used for identity theft). This may be a balancing act that I'll learn as I go along.

I must admit, this will also allow me to play more openly with the "new" Blogger without possibly wrecking one of my existing blogs.