Ray Charles, Trula and me 7/4/2012

Ok, I'm sure some of you are wondering who Trula is....You know you Ray Charles is and who I am......

Trula Munsey is my mom's older sister.  Trula died recently at the age of 95. I miss her.  I lived at her house about age 5 or 6 for a few months.  Trula never married and never, to my knowledge, cut her hair.  In a small house on the hill in Maynardville, TN.  Sitting on Trula's front porch, you could see the county jail and the inmates used to wave at us from between the bars on the windows of their jail cell. 

Trula loved music and she had more than one Ray Charles album. We listened to his music on an old sears turntable that had small speakers on the side of it and the turntable folded up to close it. It was black.

Living at Trula's house during late 1968 and early 1969 was a fun time, except for the fact that my Father was overseas with the military during this time. I learned to knit and crochet during this time. I also snapped more fresh green beans than the law allowed.  I got to run between the rows of corn planted in the front yard of her house....and running in the garden almost got me popped by a bumble bee more times than I can count.

A lot of first happened at Trula's house. I saw my first Playboy at her house....seems my cousin, Brian, who lived there at the time, enjoyed the nude form. Still yet to this day, I think the best best black and white photos are tastefully done nudes.  It also happened that the first time I won a fight with my older brother happened there.  I hit him with a dog chain in the back of  the head while running out Trula's back door.  I couldn't make that shot again to save my life! My first dog, Brutus, came from one of her neighbors. He was a poodle mix and a total mess but a wonderful sweet dog. 

Trula had lived a hard life and had been effected by polio as a teenager. She walked with a cane because she had a slight limp.  I remember walking through the small hardware store in Maynardville with Trula on her 54 birthday and giving her a bit of ribbing for being "old"...now, I'm just 4 years away from being 54 myself.

Trula never had any kids and she doted on me a good bit.  She made homemade eggnog for me that is WAY better than that store bought stuff will EVER be! It had raw eggs in it and today someone would be yelling about getting sick from raw eggs.....*sigh*...Some days I wish I didn't know what I know now.....Life was better in someways during that innocent time in my life. 

During the time in my life when I was looking up my family tree, Trula's house was a GOLD MINE! I have copies of her daddy's (who I'm named after) letters to the Veterans Administration from the 1940's. I also got copies of The Family Bible listing all the kids in the Munsey Family.  I also found out that my mom DOES have a middle name... Copies of my grandfathers Army papers and more things than I can remember at this time.

I can't hear Ray Charles sing without thinking of my Aunt Trula....it takes me back to a small house, on a hill in Maynardville TN. No hot water or indoor plumbing until 1972 or 73....taking a bath in a galvanized tub in the middle of the kitchen, water heated by boiling it on the stove....Playing outside and taking a "timeout" to go to the outhouse behind the smokehouse...

Those were the days....

J.