A Favorite New Years Eve Memory..

Let's see - I was probably eight or nine years old at the time. Grandma Irene was our babysitter (as usual) and the Carey kids would be joining us at her house as well. She had a tiny house in Everman, but we didn't care because if we were at Grandma's it was a guaranteed GOOD TIME! Since it was New Years Eve, I feel certain her aluminum Christmas tree (with color wheel) was still up. There was also plenty of homemade popcorn balls and other goodies. Although I was never of fan of those because they were so sticky - yes, I'm a very 'selective' eater. I believe it started with just the 5 of us kids. But as soon as the sun went down, obviously word spread around town that THE BEST BABYSITTER EVER was available - then her front door became a virtual revolving door :)

With the help of my sister, Cindi, who has a much better PEOPLE memory than I do, she gave me the names of more drop-ins that night: Keith & Kevin Nowell, one of the Burns kids (our preacher at the time), and Lynn Hickox (she thinks). So I'm really surprised we didn't have any of the Crouch, Pittman or Shurbet clan there. My main memory is lots and lots of kids and noise. I'm sure it seemed that way because of the tiny, tiny house. What I DON'T recall is any chaos or crying among any of us. Grandma somehow made it fun for ALL of us: from the 4 yr olds to the 10 yr olds. We also had a little brown electric organ there at the time. Fortunate for us we also had the songbook with it to show us how to play AULD LANG SYNE. It was a good time for all of us kids.

I'm sure Grandma was worn out for days. But that is a New Years Eve that each of us "kids" can probably still recall as a favorite. Not only was she our Grandma, but "Miss Irene" was also loved by many other kids as well :)