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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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