It's another beautiful day in East Texas. I have the doors open to the screen porch and can smell the tea olive (osmanthus frangrans), which Dad grew in Georgia, along with hundreds of camellias, which always makes me smile. My maternal grandmother, Linnie Rutledge,(1893-1958) grew up in Chaneyville where her mother's family, the Tanners, owned most of the land. I remember Mom talking about her grandfather Rutledge's plantation and how each of the children had someone to take care of them while they were growing up; how at the end of the year, accounts would be settled, and his wife called into question the cases of bananas, which was a code he was using for something else! My grandfather, Dr. B., (Blanchard Iles 1891-1969) was a dentist in Oakdale. He grew up in the Sugartown-Dry Creek area. His father raised goats, and my grandfather knew he didn't want to do that, so he borrowed a $100.00 and went to Atlanta and worked his way through dental school, handling cadavers. Peaches said that all the bachelors in Oakdale would always meet the trains that came to check out ladies that might be arriving. My grandmother got off the train and my grandfather picked her. Nanny was a teacher before they married. She taught Sunday School at the Baptist Church for many years, even though she belonged to the Christian Church.
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