"Grandmama" Savilla Alease Bush

Grandmama talked about all the hard work that she and her siblings did growing up on the farm, and when they were not working there her father made them walk to Lebanon Church with a lawnmower to keep the cemetery cut. He was a deacon in the church and had his children sitting on the front row every Sunday. One story that Grandmama did tell about playing as child was when they pretended to be chickens and she built her nest out of poison ivy and got a rash all over. Another story Grandmama told from her childhood was about someone bringing over a plate of soft crabs, but her family had already eaten a cherry earlier and according to an old-wives tale that her father believed eating crabs and cherries together would kill you. So to protect the family he locked the plate of crabs in a pie safe then they forgot about them until the next day when the crabs had spoiled and smelled up the house.

Grandmama talked about her "Cousin Carrie" often. I am not sure exactly how they were related but she may have been John Elbert's second cousin. She and her family lived in Baltimore and came to visit in Alfonso often. Grandmama also went to Maryland to see them and she remembered that Carrie had a pet alligator that lived under the stove and ate scrambled eggs. According to Grandmama there would have been many years that her family would not have had a Christmas if not for Cousin Carrie shipping them barrels of fruits and presents.

I remember Grandmama working a lot in the garden. She canned much of what they grew including green beans, peas and tomatoes. She also made dozens of jars of pickle every season and even grew grapes so that she could make her own jelly. She did a lot of cooking and baking. I remember that she made great fried chicken and a vegetable soup with many ingredients from the garden. At Easter Grandmama would make a special yellow layer cake with coconut frosting decorated with jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and peeps. At Christmas she would make the best fruit cake I have ever had. She kept it in the refrigerator wrapped in layers of foil and cheese cloth and would unwrap it everyday to soak it in home made grape juice and by Christmas it was so moist and sweet. Often the cookie jar she kept in the kitchen had homemade chocolate cookies inside and she always kept a package of Little Debbie Zebra Cakes in the crisper of her refrigerator as a treat. She made oyster fritters for lots of holiday meals and shucked the oysters herself because she claimed the Grandaddy "cut up the meats." Grandaddy liked to eat fried squirrel and sometimes I would bring them a few. She could skin a squirrel faster than anyone I have seen.

Grandmama had a funny way of saying a lot of words that she may have gotten from her father. The main ones I remember was that she called a sink a "zinc," a shopping cart a "carton," a camera a "camry," film was "fil-ums," batteries were "bat-trees," and she called Sprite, "Sprike." She also used the expression "presently" a lot when talking about something she was about to do except she pronounced it as "praise-nee." When talking about Grandaddy's father she pronounced his name as "Garden D." instead of "Gordon D."

Grandmama saved old coins and she started collecting state quarters when they came out in 1999. She kept all of the family graves at Lebanon and Morattico in order and placed new flowers several times a year. She took lots of pictures at family gatherings and usually had her camera in her hand whenever she wasn't in the kitchen. She would even take pictures of the TV screen when the high school marching band was in a televised parade if she knew any of her grandchildren where there.

Grandmama spent a lot of time cleaning, she kept her house spotless and thought anything could be cleaned with bleach. She even tried to clean her fish bowl with bleach one time while the gold fish was still in it. One time Grandaddy wanted me to get rid of a groundhog that was digging under the barn and he got me his .270 rifle to use. The groundhog came out and stood up beside the barn so I took a shot, It made a terrible mess on the side of the barn and Grandmama gave me wash the side of the barn off with a bucket and rag. When I got a tattoo and showed it her she said she was going to wash it off, I tried to explain that it was a tattoo and it was permanent. Grandmama said that if she took a scrub brush to it she could wash it off, and I believed her.

“I ain’t gonna have no Christmas” was something Grandmama used to say every year later in her life, even though I think she really loved the holiday. She liked giving everyone in the family joke gifts. After the regular presents she would bring out a special bag to pass around. Once everyone had a package it was like a race to open them. It was usually a wrapped box, inside a wrapped box, inside another wrapped box and in the middle a small dollar-store type gun that shot rubber darts or ping-pong balls. She would laugh and take pictures while everyone scrambled to open the gifts.

• 1934 Honor Roll
• 1934 Honor Roll
• 1945 Graduation
• 1945 Marriage
• 1951 Dinner Guest
• 1953 Visit Sanatorium
• 1954 Visit
• 1954 Dinner Guest
• 1960 Visit
• 1960 Visit
• 1960 Visit
• 1969 Visit
• 1969 Visit Caroline
• 1969 Visits and Weddings
• 1971 Visit Richmond
• 1971 Visit From Margaret
• 1971 Visit From Margaret
• 1973 Visit From Margaret
• 1974 Attend Wedding
• 1975 Visits
• 1975 Ganddaughter Born
• 1985 40th Anniversary
• 1995 50th Anniversary

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