My Recollections of Mama & Papa McNair

Recollections from a Great-Great Granddaughter

They were Mama and Papa to me.

By Nancy Quillin Long

I recorded these memories in February 2020

As I grew up in Vernon, Texas, I was fortunate to live near extended family. This allowed me the opportunity to know personally the parents (Ella Vermell King and Charles Franklin McNair) of my grandmother (Ava Ella King Jones, Mimi to me).

 

Though my recollections of them are from the perspective of an 8-12 year old child, I can still see them clearly in my mind’s eye. These recollections are limited but valuable to me. I am thankful that on occasion my mother would take me to see her elderly grandparents in their home in the small community of Lockett, Texas.

 

Of course, I didn’t know them very well, but my impression was that they were serious minded, straight forward, children of God, educated and kind. I hold them in great esteem from hearing the stories of their lives as spoken by my mother and my grandmother. (see those interviews)

Mama McNair had very long hair that she wore in a bun just above the collar line. Papa McNair had a round belly. They both wore spectacles.  They used home remedies, and as a child, I often had sore throats. Papa always said that grape juice would cure a sore throat. After I learned that, many times I could ward off illness by drinking grape juice made from concentrate.

 

The fact that today I can sit at my computer and use Google Earth to see Lockett, Texas, is nothing less that amazing. As I pull up that map, there is a pin designated as the Lockett Baptist Church which my great-great grandfather established in 1924, along with 11 other members. Charles Franklin McNair pastored there for 12 years. I’m pleased to see that the building is still standing in 2022 in good shape, with an additional wing added. Lockett, as of today, has all but dried up.

 

I remember my visits to their home in the early 1960s. I don’t remember much about their home, except that it was always painted green and it was small and humble. There was a piano in the living room. What I remember most is the property out back. It seemed so large to me, as if I was looking out on a small pasture. Mama and Papa had a very large garden. Papa would plow the land with a hand plow.  It was well tended, and they devoted much time to growing vegetables which they would can and preserve. I was most fascinated with their vegetable cellar. It was partially underground with lattice work around the top to ventilate and to offer some light. This was a wonderful place to preserve their food.

 

They were not overly affectionate people, but their love for each other and God was evident. When Mama (Ella Vermell) suffered a stroke, the news was dire. It was a severe stroke, and she would never be the same. She was placed in a nursing home on Texas Street in Vernon, Texas. I remember visiting her. At first, she recognized us, but as time wore on, she was no longer cognizant of those around her. At that point, I was no longer allowed to go with Mimi (Ava) on her visits to Mama (Ella).

Change Your Lens

The crested butte on the backside of our property. It stands high above the canyon below. 

 Our experiences and the people we have known create who we are. Those experiences are welded into our being. Not much can change that. Sometimes we have to step back and see things through a different lens. We are all different people and bring different things together to form relationships. There is a “give and take” to any relationship. And it’s not all about you. 

Nature and the land have much to offer about different perspectives if you only take time to observe it. On our mountain property, we have a grassy knoll. As I approach it, the road narrows and the forest closes in a bit, but I can still see the grassy knoll. My vision is limited, but once I reach the top of the knoll, my perspective broadens with the wide expanse of a grand landscape that is now in view. Do I have to change my lens? Most definitely! 

Laid out before me is a vast landscape of open park meadows in the midst of aspen stands and lodgepole pines. The scene is breathtaking, as I can see the road meandering across the open meadows miles away. Off to one side is the majestic mountain top and the view to the other side is of a crested butte that stands high above the canyon below. 

Life is like that. In my world, I have a limited view, much like the approach to that grassy knoll. The expanse of the horizon broadens at the top causing me to change my lens to see near and far and beyond. Relationships are like that.  In order to have a good relationship with others, you have to broaden your perspective and see things through their lens. This is a hard thing to do. But shifting your vision gives you countless opportunities to see the goodness and fullness of others. It’s not about you when you change your lens. 

Early American Settlements

 The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

VIRGINIA
The first permanent English settlement  at Jamestown, (1607) as you know, was wrought with many problems but the colony increased and a colonial capital was established in 1693 at Williamsburg where William and Mary was founded as the 2^nd college in N. America.  During the 17^th c. the south was not a land of large plantations, yet it fell victim to British mercantilism, an abusive system which compelled the colonists to sell to the mother country.  The southern wealth grew and was composed of a few privileged aristocrats, thousands of slaves and a white middle class of frontiersmen and farmers.  They added little to the creative literature of the colonies, but produced some great leaders and statesmen like Jefferson and Madison.
 
NEW ENGLAND
In the northern colonies, where natural conditions favored manufacturing and commerce, a considerable number of people were learned, especially the Puritan clergymen and governors.  They produced a considerable body of writing; yet, they were not literary people.  They were intent upon subduing a wilderness, making homes, and building a new civil society.  The Massachusetts Bay colony under the leadership of John Winthrop, a strong Puritan, became a colony with limited, but then quite unprecedented, powers of self-government.  They became the model of democracy.