Ms. Stevie

One of my earliest memories is of Miss Stevie and her daughter, Totsy.   Mama worked, as I said in the last post, at Jack's Cookie Company.  I'm the youngest of four children....6, 7, and 10 years younger than my siblings.  So, when Mama was at work and the other kids were in school, I went to Ms. Stevie's duplex in 'The Village'.  Ms. Stevie was a very 'fluffy' woman with gray hair who lived two rows down from us.  Her daughter, Totsy, lived with her.  Totsy had CP, Cerebral Palsy.  She was a grown woman, tall and thin, with dark hair.  She couldn't speak clearly but I learned to understand her although many people couldn't.  Totsy wasn't allowed to pick me up because everyone was afraid she would drop me.  But, she loved me and would try from time to time, always getting a scolding from her mama.

Ms. Stevie loved me and spoiled me rotten.  I guess I started staying with her when I was about 3 years old until I went to first grade when I was five.  There was no Kindergarten back in the day, not in our town anyway.  Mama would drop me off at Ms. Stevie's before catching the bus.  I was a real mama's girl and hated to be away from her, but Ms. Stevie had a way of getting me to let go of Mama's skirt tails and dry my tears.  She said, "Sweetie, what do you want Ms. Stevie to make for you today?  Do you want me to make a chocolate cake or a pie?"  :)  Oh yeah.  That's all it took.  Ms. Stevie loved to bake and I loved to eat, so it was a match made in Heaven.  She fed me well. Fortunately, and amazingly, I didn't gain weight back then.  I could eat whatever I wanted and not be fat!  Oh, to be able to do that now!

Another thing Ms. Stevie liked to do was dip snuff.  Oh, gross.  Next to her big soft chair, she had a coffee can...a big, two pound empty coffee can...that she would spit her dip into.  And, she wouldn't get rid of it until it was full. Blech!  Makes my stomach turn thinking about it!  But, that was the only bad habit I knew Ms. Stevie to have and she more than made up for it with her baking and her loving care of me.

Some people would say Ms. Stevie was my second mama.  But, I never thought of her that way.  Ms. Stevie was simply a warm, soft, sweet, caring lady who loved me and brings a smile to my face every time I think of her.