I am Lois Morris Dean. My dad was Frank Morris. I don't remember anything about my Grandfather, very little about my Grandmother. She was Mary Easton Morris. The thing I remember about her was she came to live with us when our sister Helen was just a baby. When I think of Grandma I think of 2 black eyes, they just look like coal and her hair was pulled back in a severe bun and on the nap of her neck I remember that those were the two colors of small flowers in the material and they came to the floor. We had a rocking chair that squeaked and she always sat in that rocker. Her feet would hit the floor and give the momentum to go back again. She would hold Helen and make a sort of kind of nest and sit and sing to her in that Welch dialect. That's what I think of when I think of her.
Mary Easton Morris
Looking around the group today I see a few faces that will remember the Holidays that we had in Greenville. Some of you younger kids might be interested in what we used to do. There was never a door locked that I ever remember in Greenville.
Uncle Percy Williams lived about a block up from us and on Christmas mornings he would try to beat us in yelling "Christmas Gift", and if we beat him we would go to his door and say that. All the kids would get up and they could take one toy and that was about all you got, you could take that with you and then we would just keep picking people up all around town singing Christmas Carols. At times, in my dreams, I can hear the snow crunch and squeak and it would be so cold in the mornings. You would be so cold that your nose would stick together when you went to sing because of the frost. The air would come out in big puffs of white. We went around to every door yelling "Christmas Gift", picking up the kids and then go on to the next one. Remember King? He said "Oh not too much". Oh, you were older than me but that was the way Christmas Morning started.
We always had a program for Christmas Eve and every kid took part. We had people coming from Beaver, Milford, Minersville and North Creek to help us take part to celebrate Christmas Eve.
Now I am going to tell on Roy, Joe, King and Ferrel and every teenage boy in our town. The fourth of July would come, they had been partying all night, none of them had ever been home. They used to nip a little or a lot (Oh now...) Anyway (Donna Morris said "maybe that's why they can't remember"). Anyway, early in the morning, before anyone else was awake you could hear thunder and it was the kids setting dynamite off and you never knew for sure because none of them were really on course, they were a wee bit off plumb but then after the dynamite you could look up to the church and there would be the flag. King would come home and tell us how he and Roy used to shimmy up that tiny flag pole. I remember how concerned mother used to be, she would walk to the gate and back and forth because she was concerned about the boys, until she would see the flag on the flag pole and know the kids were all okay. Then she came back to the house.
We always had a parade on the July 4th and the children dances. If you didn't have a reason to dance one would be made up. My Mom and Dad used to do the music for the dances. Everyone in Greenville used to do their bit and participate. There wasn't any old middle aged or young. We were all just one big happy family. It was a really Happy Valley.
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