Willene, Our Favorite Sitter

By Brenda S. Brown

 

Our former neighbors, Henry "Pop" Monfort and his wife Ruby were blessed with four wonderful children; their names are June, Carolyn, Patricia and Willene.  The family lived on an adjacent street in Richland, during the early years when we resided in a small rental house on the tiny tree-lined Meyers Street.
 
After our family moved to the brick home on Nicholson Street, and time marched forward, Willene, their youngest daughter, became our favorite sitter.  
 
Mamma and daddy were proud to be certified graduates of the Arthur Murray Studio and thoroughly enjoyed ballroom style dancing.  Consequently they joined the Country Club in nearby Americus in part, so they could attend the Saturday evening dinner dances, and Willene stayed with me and Brother David.     
 
One of my favorite summer refreshments continues to be a tomato sandwich, and Willene prepared the finest; she applied lots of mayonnaise to the fresh slices of Sunbeam light-bread, chopped the tomatoes into minute pieces, and liberally applied salt and pepper. 
 
Our evening snacks frequently consisted of an ice-cold glass of Co-Cola, hot, buttered popcorn and Tom's salted peanuts, and just before Gunsmoke came on at ten o'clock, we rushed into the kitchen to fabricate a surprise offering.
 
Our chosen late-night refreshment was consistently sweet and in all probability chocked full of calories but in those days we knew little about those numbers.   We concocted ice-cream sundaes layered with gooey chocolate syrup; various toppings and adorned with a bright red maraschino cherry. 
 
One of our inventions was piling marshmallow cream on vanilla wafers, to create tiny and sweet bite-size morsels.  On occasion we used mamma's modern blender to produce homemade milkshakes with intriguing names and flavors.    Oh what fond memories these are. 
 
Here is a bit of trivia, the reason I remember that we consumed Sunbeam bread instead of any other popular brand is because when torn, Sunbeam will split equally, down-the-middle, every time; therefore it was our family favorite.   
 

 

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