Page 232 - People & Places In Time

A final word:
There is one piece to my heritage not in the past; but from after I was born. Throughout my story as told here, I’ve made little mention of my sister Carol, born three years after me. The truth is, I’ve not been sure what I could write. Growing up in Exeter our lives as happened were much the same with regard to Dad, Mom and the homes we lived in; our grandparents, their home, the schools we attended and so on. Our friends were different though some of her friends were a brother or sister to mine our experiences may have overlapped yet they remained our own. It seems we were just enough in years apart to have lived separate lives. By no means was there estrangement, in fact we got along quite well with the exception of typical sibling conflicts. I do think as we grew older, we became closer . . . of course by then we lived in separate towns, each with our own obligations.
The reality today is I miss her greatly since she passed away far too young in May of 2003. Most importantly I have her twin nieces Annie, Shana and their families as my best memory of Carol. To have failed to write more here was in no way out of indifference.
Since writing the first chapter on my family history, I’ve discovered that two sons of my 2nd great grandfather Zadoc Thomas Smith, while living in Missouri were in the Union Army during the Cival War as wagon drivers.
Some months ago, I attended my cousin Luann Mills’ funeral service (she was the daughter of mothers first cousin Wava Mitchell-Mills). What I hadn’t expected was running into Carolyn Newcomb, who I wrote of in the chapter Growing Up in Exeter, at the cemetery sixty years after my fourth-grade crush had moved away. Turns out when Carolyn began school in Visalia, she was a classmate and friend of my cousin and I never knew.
Another person I haven’t written much about is my mother. I’m not exactly sure as to why this is, because it isn’t fare to the woman who brought me into this world. As a school, teacher Mom was working much of my growing-up years and the time fell to my grandparents. So much of who we are is shaped before we know it by those we’re most intimately connected
as children. I’ve written so much about my grandmother’s influence, yet my mother fulfilled her role very well as a practical no-nonsense mother to a not very sensible, independent boy and young man.
My mothers’ grandfather and father were ranchers and farmers who built a successful business through hard work and toughness. Isolated on
My sister Carol with her cat Bibs
Carol with our Mom in the backyard at 323 Lenox Ave.