A Note from Cindy Cooper

Following is a moving e-mail I recently received from Cindy Cooper after she viewed our latest post about Knob Creek:

Bring's tears to my eyes... It won't be long until it will start falling in. It seems like yesterday that I was a little girl and would walk over there. Uncle Gralen was blind, but he would always know when I was walking up in the yard...even from where he always sat at that window in a rocking chair. I always said he could see... because he was always at that window...but he couldn't. My Aunt Grace would be cooking in the back-kitchen and Great Grandma Turis would be settin' on the front porch swinging. She would have her little can of snuff and she'd roll her little stick in it then put it in her mouth. Her hair was long and she would unroll it and show me how she'd roll it back up.

They had an old grandfather clock that sat on the mantel and Aunt Grace would always wind it up just for me...it was stolen some time ago. I remember a white crochet bed spread that was on the bed . It was so beautiful to me. Out in the smokehouse, they had a grater that grandma would go get out and let me play with.

I remember those flowers being planted . She had some that were all different colors...like wild flowers. To this day, Easter flowers and wildflowers are my favorite!

I remember the old barn in back and the cows Aunt Grace milked. Out to the side of the barn was her clothesline, then a fence, and over from the fence was her garden. The road at that time passed in front of the house and up the side. They had a big collie dog like Lassie...can't remember his name. Great Grandma had a pair of tiny glasses. When she passed away someone gave them to me. I've since passed them on to Janet.

Me and Brother Pod would not miss a week to go over there to see them. Of course, Pod stayed at the creek most of the time and I would walk up from the spring from RJ's. Many times, Aunt Grace would give me a bucket and I would walk to the spring and get water for her. She never made me that I remember. I wasn't very strong, but I would always get them water. The cistern was at the side of the house but I just liked going to get them water...guess I thought I was being big.

I remember the newspaper being put up in the walls and closet. Aunt Grace would make up some flour and water and make a paste and put it on the walls.

Well...I have went down a lane Tonight that has me crying! Everyone calls the place “The Robert Cooper Place”, but to me and Brother Pod, it was our Grandma Turis or Aunt Grace's. Brother Ed wasn't born yet, so he doesn't have these memories of growing up on Knob Creek like me and Pod...or the ones we had of grandma Turis. I remember that Doyle was a baby when we saw the bear in the field that scared me and Pod to death! We had Doyle in a wagon.

I don't know how Grandma spelled her name so I guessed at it. She was over 100 years-old when she died in the Calico Rock nursing home. I loved her with all my heart and still miss them all! - Cindy Cooper