I was trying to decide on a story to start off the year and
my Daddy’s baby brother, Bobby Corley, just reminded us all a few days ago that
Pa as we all called him would have been 108 years old on December 27th. Pa,
born Veldo Thomas Corley was born on December 27, 1908 in Marion, Crittenden
County, Kentucky. He was the son of
William Thomas Corley and Susie Alice Chandler.
Pa was my Daddy’s step-father, and he was a wonderful man, father, grandfather
and cook, you should have tasted his beans and cornbread they were heavenly. The following picture is of Uncle Bobby with
Mama Jessie and Pa Corley.
After
Uncle Bobby wished Pa Corley happy birthday a few of my cousins commented on
Uncle Bobby’s post on Facebook. The
following are some of the comments from my cousins. From my sister, Kim, “Wow, Happy Birthday Pa
Corley....still remember his story's and his pipe....”. My cousin Cindee, “He told the best darn
stories. You know, I was grown before I
knew he couldn't read. And that pipe....
lOvE it!!!! All these stories.... we all
have such wonderful stories of our childhood with Pa Corley. What wonderful memories that we can all
share.... love it!!! Somebody explain
the bump on his head???” My cousin
Glendel, “Always told me momma Jesse hit him with a rolling pen not true I
guess. Celebrating his birthday with
uncle lug and aunt poodie”. My cousin
Becky, “Ya he said she had a mean swing... Hey Glen I remember them lol!!!” My sister, Deanna, “Happy Birthday Pa
Corley... he always let me blow out his match after he lit his pipe.” My cousin, Sheryl, “Awwww loved Pa Corley. He was the best!” My cousin, Donnie’s daughter, Lisa, “I still
have a piece of drift wood he and I found in a creek bed when I was just a little
girl, I have kept that treasure all these years.” Finally, my cousin Jeanie, “Momma Jessie
told him he'd lose his ass if it wasn't attached to him and he said, ‘no as
soon as it hit the floor you'd have it boxed up and stuck under the bed’, God
bless him he's loved.” The following is
a picture of Pa Corley with that famous pipe in his mouth and the lump on his
forehead.
Their comments made me remember when I was taking an English
class at Weber State University a few years ago. I had to write a short story about a
character from my family. The first
person I thought of was Pa Corley. Everyone
loved Pa, he was the best story teller you ever heard. You could almost see and hear the people he
was telling you about, and as a young child I would get up and look for them
because I thought for sure they were coming right up the walk. The following is the only picture I have of
him when he was younger. I just noticed
after I put this picture here that Pa doesn’t have that lump on his head like
he did in the older pictures I have of him.
Maybe Mama Jessie did hit him with a rolling pin like Glendel said. J
Pa was the sixth of eight children, three boys and five
girls and they all had unusual names, starting with the oldest Tela Ann, Zela
Julia, Willie Glonzo, Waldo Ansel, Zelva Ollie, Cleo Josephine and Jewell
Blondell. As a kid I thought they had
the funniest sounding names. Pa married
my Daddy’s mama, who we all called Mama Jessie, in 1943 after she had gotten a
divorce from my grandpa. Pa was 35 years
old and nine years younger than Mama Jessie and had never been married
before. Mama Jessie had already been
married four times and had ten children by the time she ran into Pa. For
some reason they went over to Charleston, Mississippi County, Missouri to get
married. I wish I had asked my Daddy why
they went over there to get married, but unfortunately I never did. Pa took in all her kids and excepted them all
right away and even adopted Uncle Bobby and gave him his last name. He was a special person and one we all loved
very much. I have always liked this
picture of Pa Corley and Mama Jessie taken at Cave-in-Rock, Illinois just
across the river from Crittenden County, Kentucky.
Pa never had any schooling and he could not read or write,
but he did recognize his name when he saw it printed on something. He worked in the spar and coal mines, did
some fishing and also helped dig graves for extra money. He may not have had any book learning, but he
was smart in other ways. Pa and Mama
Jessie were married for 41 years when she died in 1984 and he died a little
over two years later in 1986. They are
buried side by side at Sugar Grove Cemetery just outside Marion, Kentucky.
Pa was about 6 feet tall and weighed around 200 pounds and
his hair was real thin and pretty much gray by the time I can remember. He had this big lump on the side of his
forehead and a big round face. He was
always smoking a pipe and he kept the tobacco pouch in his front pocket and
would sometimes let us fill his pipe and tamp it down and light it for
him. He would even let us hold the pipe
in our mouth while we lit it, when I did I guess I inhaled instead of exhaled
and about choked to death, so from then on I would just fill and light it
instead of holding it in my mouth. The
following is a picture taken at Mama Jessie’s 80th birthday party of
Pa and Mama Jessie in 1979 and of them with nine of Mama Jessie’s ten kids, the
only one not there was Uncle William.
Uncle George and Uncle Bobby are the only ones left now.
Well I have to tell you some of Pa Corley’s stories and some
of the characters and their names that he came up with right off the top of his
head. He could keep us kids entertained
for hours and kept us out of the house and quiet on the front porch. Two of
the characters in his stories that I remember the most were Uncle Lug and Aunt
Pootie. He could carry on conversations forever
it seemed like, and you thought for sure they were setting on the porch with
you. Us kids would be setting in the
swing or on the steps and Pa would be setting in the rocker on the front porch
and acting like he was ignoring us. He
would just set there nice and quiet for quite a while and just slowly rock back
and forth and smoke his pipe and just when we thought we weren’t going to get
any stories he would up and just start talking to Uncle Lug or Aunt Pootie or
both of them.
“Well, Uncle Lug did you finish gettin’ in your crops
yesterday? Yes sir, you got some mighty
pretty soil, it’s so black and rich, ought to grow you a fine crop this year,
yes sir re bob. How is the young en’s
doing? Did Tater get over the
croup? What happen to Marcel? I heard tell he run off with the Sisco girl
from down in the bottoms and they got married over cross the river. Is she in the family way like they all is
saying? Did you hear tell about Massa
George over in Cave-in-Rock? Heard tell
he pert near blowed his big toe off when his shotgun went off when they was out
coon hunting last weekend. Well Aunt
Pootie I didn’t see you comin’ up the walk, how you been doing? You lookin’ right smart there, are you headed
for town and some shopping? Yes, Jessie
done been feeling poorly for the past week and sure believe she could use some
cheering up ‘bout now. Why you just go
on in and make yourself to home and I go fetch her fer ya. Uncle Lug did I tell you I done some work for
Gilbert’s again last week. I done dug
two graves again. People been droppin’
like flies lately, pert near hear about two or three a week seems like
lately. This weather don’t clear up soon
and warm us up they may be more we be a plantin’ before the summer even gets a
going.”
Pa would go on forever and switch from talking
to Uncle Lug or Aunt Pootie to one of their children that may have just shown
up during one of his conversations. He
would get so caught up in his talking that sometimes I think he may have even
forgotten he was telling us a story or that we were even still on the
porch. He was a sweet old man and he
took all of his stepchildren and their children and treated us all like his own
family. Everybody ought to have a story
teller in their family. Someone who can
keep you entertained and out of trouble and we had ours in Pa Corley.
I guess the holidays make you think back on those that have
passed on and I have been thinking about a lot of people in the past few
weeks. I lost my Aunt Sis the week
before Thanksgiving and since then we have lost more family members on my side
and my husband’s side as well as a few friends.
One was 102 and she was ready to go home and the youngest was my
daughters friend who was only 28 and left two little girls and she wasn’t ready
to go. I have been to way too many funerals
in the past few weeks and just this morning I learned that my Aunt Donna had
passed away, she was 86. I won’t be able
to attend her funeral because she lived in Arkansas, but my thoughts and
prayers are with all of her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. She just had a new great-granddaughter born on
January 4th. The following picture is Aunt Donna with her three oldest kids, David, Janice and Nancy is the baby, I think this was in Woodlake, California.
If there is a story you remember hearing, ask someone that
you think may have heard the same story and write It down. I do this kind of thing for a living, but I
always thought I had more time to ask my Dad and Mom questions, but I didn’t
and now it is too late to ask them. I
still have some aunts and uncles though, so I have been talking to them more
and asking them questions. I have talked
to Uncle Bobby more since Aunt Sis passed then I have in quite some time and I
have really enjoyed doing that. He is
the baby of Mama Jessie’s ten kids, but he listened to a lot of the different
stories over the years and his memory is great and so is his big brother’s,
Uncle George’s.
So we never know when it will be our time to go,
talk to your family, visit those that are getting older, and stop looking at
your cell phones, because at any time they could be gone and you will wish that
you had gone and seen them one more time.
