The Little House

I know very few people who have more than five children. Maybe it's the availability of birth control or more channels on television, but two to four children seems to be the norm. The oldies had four children. She came from a family of 12, 14, whatever. He is an only child.

Big families used to be the norm. My grandmothers were sisters. One was the birth mother and one was the earth mother who raised my mother and her sisters. It sounds bizarre but you would not believe how many people I have met in my life who have been raised by a grandmother, an aunt, or a sister.

I think there were 13 or so children in that family. I have a photo of all of them sitting on a porch and my grandmother wrote at the bottom, "A happy family and a happy home" It didn't look that great to me. In fact, my loony grandmother looked rather annoyed at the whole situation. In the photo, all of the family is together, yet, she's sitting off by herself.

My great grandfather (who I actually remember) made everyone welcome in his home. At one point, they took the detached garage and converted it into a "little house." Majorly small! But, it was functional and a lot of relatives lived there over the years. Some families name their homes/estates. We had a name too. Where's so and so? Oh, probably back in the "little house." When I spent time with my grandmother, (the sane one,) there would often be many of her brothers hanging out in the back yard, yucking it up, drinking and doing their version of a jam session on guitars. My mother would pluck me out of my little sandbox and remove me from that scene.

Once again she was right. A couple of them eventually did some time in the "big house."