Childhood Memories-Dad's Family

Today I spent many hours "tidying up" some genealogy work on my dad's family tree.  As I was adding siblings, dates, husbands, and the like for the scores of collateral lines, it brought back vivid memories.  So many of these people are long dead, but I knew them fairly well through my own parents and grandparents.

My dad was born in a little town in western West Virginia.  So were both his parents.  Their collective parents were born in a nearby county, and the lines go back to Virginia and Ohio for many more generations.  Because of my small town upbringing, I was often around great aunts and uncles, and more cousins than I can even remember.  I'm still in contact with many of those in my generation, and my daughters know many of the "once removed" cousins -children of my cousins.

Mildred Gorrell Pyatt Wetzel

My great grandma Rachel Miller Gorrell and her husband had twelve children.  Ervin (her husband) was from a family of eleven children.  You couldn't take a walk without running into someone related to the Gorrells.  My grandmother, Mildred, was child number eight.  Her immediate siblings, Opal (Jackson) and June (Pyatt) were very close to her, as were sisters Belle (Lehew), Ruth (Williams), Virginia (Dow) and Mabel (Bigley).  I knew them, and all of their children; Mabel had a girl in my graduating class (Debbie Bigley), and Belle had one a bit younger (Kim Lehew).  June had grandkids around my age (Tim, Mike, Keith and Jodi Abels).  There were so many Gorrell cousins that my oldest daughter (Ryan Reynolds) would check with me before dating anyone from our area.

I remember big, big family picnics at "the farm".  Women in clean linen aprons cooking the most amazing food one could ever wish for. Yard games, pet dogs, and general fun for all of "us kids" who ranged basically from young adults to infants.  There was ALWAYS watermelon, a great many salads, and green beans forever.  Later, the Gorrells who remained when I was a younger adult, would have reunions that I occasionally could make it to.  My sense of family is very strong, and runs very deep.

One of the things that struck me was the sheer number of men in both the Gorrell and Pyatt families who served in the military.  Every branch except the Coast Guard was represented.  That's not unusual for the time period as WWII, then Korea and Viet Nam, were in generations just previous to mine.  It's also not a surprise that this was never talked about.  War is hell, they survived, end of story as far as they were concerned.

Mabel and Clay Rowley

Likewise, not all of my memories were good ones.  I didn't much like my grandma's second husband, Paul Wetzel or his mom Lulu.  His sister Agnes (Wilkins) always seemed to me to be angry.  His sister Midge (Rowley) was the happier one.  Both were very big women and could smother a child with their hugs!  Grandma Wetzel was obsessed with keeping her house clean.  Paul's sons from his first marriage, John and Darrell, were teenagers to young adults back then, and full of themselves.  Darrell always seemed to be in trouble.  John liked music.

Gram's mom Rachel lost her first husband and father of her many children in 1930.    Their youngest, son Bob, was only two months old.  The oldest, Alonzo, was 20, with a young family of his own.  He died just six years later after an appendectomy, leaving his wife and five children.  Alonzo's brother Don had been killed in an accident in 1933, only 18 years old.  Then, as if that weren't enough, a real crisis and tragedy occurred.

Daughter Violet, aged 17, was killed in a car wreck just two weeks after her brother Alonzo died.  Adding insult to injury, she was killed by her cousin Garnet (aka Dutch) who had just put plates on his car that morning.  He fled the scene and wasn't picked up until the next day.  Two other non-family members were also badly injured.  Dutch was the son of David Selby Gorrell, Ervin's brother.  The families never got over it.

The uncle that I was closest to was Uncle Bob.  He lived in Mason County, WV with his wife and two kids, and was the youngest of the Gorrell kids.  He was very much like my dad, his namesake.  Both told silly jokes and liked to laugh.  My grandmother was very close to him.  Uncle Bob died when I was about ten-I think it was cancer.  I've long since lost track of his kids.

Aside from my grandmother, the Gorrell I miss the most is my Aunt June.  She was everybody's "Aunt June".  She was brassy, sassy, and incredibly kind. She and my Aunt Belle died the same year, 2007.  After my grandma died in 1999, Aunt June was her stand in in my life. My kids were fortunate to know her as well.

One more note then I will leave this for now.  My dad and his first cousin Libby Pyatt Abels were what is known as "double first cousins".  Gorrell sisters married Pyatt brothers.  Interestingly, my sister Amy (Taylor) and my cousin Jodi (Smith) looked exactly alike in their toddler years.  The local newspaper even ran photos of them in the same bathing suit, a couple of years apart, and even I couldn't tell them apart.