McCreary/Wright Genealogy and other stuff

Aaron Wright wrote this in remembrance of Juanita Wright his grandmother (my mom)

“Well I guess I don’t know anything… but did you hear…” My grandma had a lot of sayings and words that over the years we’ve begun to refer to as “grannyisms”. But this was the one that if you waited long enough would always be followed by a good story or the latest news of the county because of course Grandma knew everything.

Well I guess I don’t know anything, but I have a few stories that grandma told or was part of over the years.

Mud dobbers - She would often tell us the story of her and her two brothers Bob and Lester entertaining themselves by building dams and playing in the creek near their farm. And once they made makeshift boats out of wooden fence posts and began floating toward a quickly flooding four mile creek and being found by their mother

and yelled at just in time to save themselves from the flood waters.

You could always tell this was something that stuck with her. Looking back I’m sure this is at the root of her incredible fear of water that she passed on to most of my family. People often comment on the pond they see as they drive by the farm. What they don’t realize is that’s the only view of it we’re allowed as well.

By the time I came along my grandparents had been married close to 25 years, raised 6 kids, and settled into their roles and unwritten job descriptions. I’ll never forget that my grandma expected my grandpa to take out the trash. And if he needed reminding she’d shout one of her “grannyisms” from the kitchen “Harold, get out here. This trash is having pups.”

Often when you’re young and you see your grandparents as old, it’s hard to picture them ever being young. One of my favorite stories that Grandma told was about here meeting Grandpa. They were both apparently big in the square dance scene (it’s hard to imagine that being a scene, but…) She noticed him from across the room. You could tell from the unspoken part of the story that she pretty immediately developed a crush. But she said her hopes were cut short when she realized that he came with no less than 3 girls. Well grandma was nothing if not persistent, so she did some inquiring and much to her relief found out they were his sisters. So they began a dance that carried them through 45 years of marriage, 6 children, 12 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. And as grandma would say, More adventures than “Carter’s got liver pills.”

As one of those grandchildren. I’m sure we would all agree that grandma taught us so much from how to cook, to how to play baseball, to how to drive… And she did it with a love and patience that we all did our best to test the limits of.

As the oldest, I was often the ring leader of the many stunts and pranks that Kellie, Brian and I pulled during our summers at the farm. From Chinese fire drills in the middle of Eaton, to leaving the car windows cracked while going through the carwash, to our incessant singing “there’s a hole in the bucket”, to turning her staircase into a slide, she continued to love us and seemed to even enjoy some of our pranks even though she’d report to our parents and others that we were acting like a bunch of “banny roosters?” We always knew we were loved.

Our worst prank that has gone down in the family history books was the summer that someone was consistently not flushing the toilet. Grandma was determined to find the culprit and certain that she could identify him or her by the evidence left at the scene. The three of us decided to test her detective skills. We went to the barn, scooped a fresh pile from one of the horses into a bucket. Snuck back to the house, dumped it in the toilet and then waited for her to discover it. I’ll never forget her walking in “Oh My God!.... Harold, get in here.”

That was our cue to exit.

The thing grandma is probably most known for besides her love of her family was her love of animals. Every kind of animal. And there was no sense in having just one. Animals were always for breeding to make more animals.

Horses, cows, chickens, geese, ducks, ponies, minature horses, draft horses, goats, sheep, cats, dogs of every breed. Peacocks, ferrets, there was once talk of starting a chinchilla operation – I’m glad that one never materialized.

During the summers we’d would make an almost weekly trip to the Brookeville farmer’s market, or the Rushville horse auction, or the Eaton livestock auction and sometimes we’d hit all three in a week.

I can’t tell you how many times us grandkids shared the backseat with a crate of ducks on the way to the market, and newly purchased, geese, goats, or other animal on the way back. Once Judy, Grandma and I went to the state fair and I lost my shoes. Of course we couldn’t leave, so I had to carry our newest find “a long-haired rabbit” barefoot for an entire day around the fair grounds.

But her favorite animal was the horse, of course. Almost every weekend we were at a horseshow. And during the week we were practicing, riding, cleaning and preparing for the next weekend. This was serious business. Grandma made us ride 3 times a day – occasionally 4 times. Sometimes we would have to ride other horses besides our own b/c ours were tired. Grandma always expected us to work hard. Teaching us that there was nothing that couldn’t be done with a little elbow grease.

Horseshows were high priority in our family. Harold made them take Judy to the doctor before they could go to quarter horse congress. Ended up in the hospital for appendicitis.

Each year all our efforts culminated at the county fair. There is no place my grandma would rather be. In the last few years when the thought of her going to the fair scared most of us, she was still shopping for the perfect camper that only got used that one week out of the year.

When she moved into the rest home earlier this year and her mind started to trick her more and more. There was one trick that I thought was beautiful. She often thought she was at the Fair, and would call family members for rides home. At first that made me sad, but then I thought “how great!” because I’m convinced there’s no place she’d rather be.

To close I want to borrow one more grannyism. I can’t really say more than this. “Grandma, we love you and take it easy.”