Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

Cousins
 
My mother’s sister Esther had four daughters. Shelby “Jean” and Pollie Frances Skaggs, Virginia Lou (named after my mother and me) and Betty Sue (named after my sister Betty). Shelby Jean and Pollie were near Betty’s and my ages. They visited on Sundays and we sat on the porch and daydreamed about the places we would go when we grew up. Shelby Jean was a beautiful, blue eyed blonde and I was a little jealous of her. My mother tried to make me feel better and told me that Shelby Jean was just graceful. That didn’t help.
 
Shelby Jean was a year older than I was and taught me how to make fudge. I learned so well that I made it and entered it in the Pumpkin Show and won first prize when I was 14.
 
When I was in high school and scheduled to take driver’s ed my Senior year; they couldn’t get a car, so I never learned how to drive. My sister Betty came along two years later and learned to drive. 
 
When I look back on things, I am amazed that I have been so many places….places that I never would have dreamed of for someone who never drove a car. For someone who daydreamed of those places on the front porch with my cousins when it was literally not possible. 

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck