Rabbit Box Blog

In July 1951, Nelson and Estie Shelton became grandparents for the first time, when Chuck and I were born just a few days apart. Okay, I’ll admit I’m the older one.

They were still in their forties, and Grandma Estie wasn’t happy about suddenly having achieved grandparent status. After all, she still had children at home, the youngest, Leroy, being just ten years old.

So she told everyone, “Don’t you dare call me Granny! Grannies are old ladies and I’m not an old lady!”

Naturally, Grandpa Nelson took great delight in calling her Granny. As soon as I was old enough to start learning and repeating names, he tried to teach me to call her Granny. But I got things a little confused, and came to know Nelson as Granny. The name stuck for several years.

As Estie’s mother grew older, she developed some health problems, and Estie would go to the Shipman farm near Tuxedo, North Carolina, to help take care of her. On one trip to pick her up and take her home, Grandpa Nelson took me along in his truck. In those days there were no seat belts, and certainly no back seats in trucks, so I stood on the seat beside Grandpa.

I’m not sure if it’s a real memory or one that my mind has recreated from the oft-repeated family story, but I think I remember what happened next. As we traveled down a rough dirt road across the pasture leading to the farmhouse, we bounced along from rock to pothole to rock. After struggling to keep my feet, I called out, “Caresul, Granny, you’ll make Neil fall!”

At some point, the family convinced me to stop calling Nelson Granny, and I learned to pronounce “f” in careful.

Which brings me to another point: what did we call our grandparents?

After the initial confusion, I learned to call Nelson “Grandpa,” or “Granddaddy.” Estie was “Grandma” and maybe an occasional “Grandmama.” As other grandchildren came along, they had their own names. Nelson was called “Papaw,” “Pipaw,” and maybe some other variation I don’t recall. Estie was “Mamaw” and “Mimaw.” I remember Doris and maybe some other of her children calling her “Maw,” but I don’t think any grandchildren did.

The Lineberger side was a little more formal, and Iva was sometimes “Grandmother.” I think that stemmed from her stepchildren calling her “Mother,” to distinguish her from their deceased mother Nellie. She was “Mama,” a name they didn’t apply to Iva. Like his siblings, Dad called her “Mother,” but we called her “Grandma.”