Grandma Bohannon

I remember a story my mother told me a long time ago about a sign of spring she and her family always looked forward to when she was a child at Etta Bend. As surely as the new wildflowers popped up, a small figure with wispy gray hair would appear on the road leading to the Latty house. The newcomer was not related to the Latty family but they called her Granny Bohannon and each spring she would come to stay several days with them. I’ve recorded these yearly visits in The Heritage of Etta Bend. My talented cousin Carolyn Karinen drew the cover picture of that book.

Granny Bohannon lived for most of the year with her stepson but come spring, she would start out on her yearly visits. She was very near sighted and completely deaf. She had no real home of her own and you would think with all those problems, she would have been grumpy. Not so! Granny was cheerful and happy. She enjoyed helping with household chores and made the work seem like fun. When evening shadows crept down the hills of Etta Bend and Ma Latty lit the kerosene lamps, Granny would ask for a fire in the fireplace too. So of course, the family obliged. Although Granny could not see well, she was able to see the flames in the firebox and this gave her joy.

Finally, Granny would decide it was time to move along and visit other friends. Mom and her family hated to see her go but they were glad for her yearly visit. No one thought it strange that Granny Bohannon would come trudging along the dirt road to Etta and stay for a spell. That was 100 years ago, probably around 1920. Times in rural Oklahoma were far more peaceful than what we know in our technological age of rush and hurry. People were honest and trusting because they had no reason to be otherwise. I think about those days now and try to imagine what life on that long ago Etta farm would have been. I wasn’t around in 1920 but although I’ve never seen those times, I miss them. They were good, honest days, those long ago days when the Lattys looked forward to a small figure truding down the road toward their house. Granny Bohannon was a sure sign of spring.