Saturday, September 4, 2010

Momma and Poppa Robinson's Place

Gideon C. and Arthusa "Thusie" Evans Robinson


Cousin Lucy shared the above map and diagram of the homeplace of Momma and Poppa Robinson, her grandparents.   Lucy is my father's first cousin and daughter of my great-uncle Lawson Robinson, who was a Methodist minister in North Mississippi for many years and brother to Luke (my grandfather), Buddy, Louis, Lawrence and Jewell. 

Momma and Poppa Robinson were Thusie and Gideon Robinson, and they lived on the land that today encompasses the homes along Willow Road and Mimosa Drive.   The name of Mimosa Drive came from the mimosa trees that Thusie grew around her house.  You can see from Lucy's map that the mimosas fronted the dirt road that went by the Robinson house, which today would be located at the fork of Willow Road and Mimosa Drive (Lucy indicates where this fork is by the notation "thick sand").   "The Creek" that Lucy identifies on the map is the creek that crosses Willow Road at Farrar Drive.

One thing that I should point out about Lucy's map is that the dirt road she shows heading off straight to the left on the map actually continued onward to what is now Main Street.   Gideon died in 1944, and Thusie in 1952.   After Thusie's death, the Robinson land was sold to a cousin, Buster Robinson, who developed the subdivision that is there now.

Here is a picture, made about 1934, of my father, as a toddler, sitting on Thusie and Gid's porch.   I can't tell if that is a piece of watermelon, or a peach from one of the Robinson peach trees, or perhaps one of Thusie's fried pies that he is eating.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mona, the more we share Robinson family history, the more entwined our families become! Each time you show a photo of Thusie, I look at her and say to myself, that's Aunt Agnes (aunt Aggie as she later became known when my little sister, Linda now 70 years of age, was first learning to talk. Linda also gave Grandmother, Kate Robinson Stone the tag of "Giggy" - again trying to say grandmother. I believe it was the son of the late Bill Doty who maybe 10 years later gave us the "Granny Kate" - ah yes, a woman of many names and she proudly answered to all of 'em!

If you enlarge the photo of your dad on the front porch, the smudges at the corner of his lips leads me to believe that may be a pound cake type covered in "Choc-let", but because of the darkness around the edges of whatever he is eating looks like a big red apple; his mouth and chin says differently. . . .I study pictures for the "what ifs" or the hidden secret, like "what if that is his first birthday picture?" I know because I have photos of our sons with "the moment" smeared all over the lower part of their faces!

I don't think young mothers learn how to put that diaper on correctly! Our Mikey was 4 days old on his first Easter and I was burping him when Ron took a snapshot. I was so lucky - his little bottom was almost out of that diaper!

Okay everyone: Have a safe and a wonderful Labor Day Week-end. bettye