Whew the house is quiet once more. I can think again!!!!
Mom and Dad used to go to lots of football, basketball, cocktail parties, sales, races and out to dinner with horse clients all the time. Many times we would stay with Nana Nuckols. She would usually take us when our nanny's were busy or couldn't come to stay with us.
Judy, Uncle Charlie and Aunt Louise's oldest daughter, and I would stay at Nana's sometimes Hetty also one of Charlie and Louise's. We used to have fun.
Nana always cooked with us in the kitchen. Dad had an asparagus patch in the back of the house. It was about an acre of asparagus. UMMMM Good I say today, but hated them when I was younger. Nana and Dad would steam them and we each had 6 beautiful asparagus. They were funny cause they would put drawn butter in a tall skinny glass and let us dip the asparagus in the glass and chew from the floral end till the stalk got tough. They were bound and determined that we were going to love asparagus and today it along with artichokes are my favorite vegetable.
Nana would also get us all to make her great oatmeal, pecan and raisin cookies. MMMM they were great. She had a recipe that made 72 of them. We had a blast. She used bacon drippings instead of lard or butter. They were the best cookies I have ever tasted don't like other oatmeal cookies. Still can taste the flavor of her cookies. None can compare. Of course we look like we had a flour fight after the making of the cookies. We had to clean the dishes too and kitchen afterwards. The cookies were the reward for cleaning up our mess. She also gave us a glass of milk--ice cold--. It was good and we all had a blast.
We would play games Simon Says, Rock School and hop scotch weather permitting. We would play Simon Says and Rock School on Nanas steps going upstairs. It was fun. The winners always got a piece of butterscotch candy.
Nana was also an avid Canasta player. She taught all of us how to play Canasta. She also played a mean rubber of Bridge too. She always told us it was to complicated for her to teach us that, so we always played Canasta. She would set up the card table and cards and make us lemonade and pop us some corn. We would play on her side screened in porch. It was fun and we liked it.
Sometimes she would read her magazine at nite. Judy, Hetty and I would make up a play or a dance and perform it for her. She always got a big kick out of that. Nana knew how to entertain us and keep us busy. She was a dear sweet woman and we loved her.

Lord knows that God put me in a family of really good people that I guess during those times meant to do the best for all of us.
I had 7 cousins and at the age of 10 had a baby brother. That was a big adjustment. All my 10 yrs of life I was daddys little girl but yet his buddy. Then all of a sudden we had Hi. I wouldnt say I was totally put on the back burner, but I was not the shining star of my mom and dad anymore which really made me very envious of Hi. I know those feelings shouldnt be there and that I had their adorn attention for 10 years uninterrupted. But when it comes to a hault all of a sudden at that age you are totally confused.
Also the confusion was also brought about by mom getting very sick. It was a time then that I didnt understand. Was just told it was incurable and that she would get weaker as time went on and not to upset her. Well at age 10 lots of things and questions are in a little girl and young ladies mind. All little lady questions about body changing and boys and just girl questions that come between moms and little girls. This was hard and my dad was not the kind of man that answered little girl questions very well. I finally got told my mom had Multiple Sclerosis which they still havent found a cure for yet. It was the deteriation of the nervous system which you lose control of muscle all muscle eventually. There were not any medications back then at all.
No known causes as of today. Speculations on what caused it. It isnt hereditary and is thought to be a virus. I was kinda lost my mom and I grew very close and she was such an active person during my first decade of life. She kept up for as long as she could. Little Hi became more of my son when I grew older and I felt very tied down. Having to take him to school, birthday parties, to the club for golf lessons, etc. I thought the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I was not a real happy person for a few years after that. I rebelled and the Lord knows was a selfish person to do that to both my parents and my extended family and most of all Hi, BUT I did.
My parents went through lots of turmoil and struggles with the disease. I guess it ruined their marriage. They both were unable to heal it. My dad drank and ran around and my mom just got sicker. It ended after 27 yrs of marriage in divorce. He sold his share of the farm and remarried and moved to Florida. Dad did take care of mom, as I did and grandpa did too. We finally were transfered to Texas then NC and at the age of 57 in 1980 my sweet mom passed away. I felt so quilty about moving away and not being closer during the last couple years of her life. I dont think my dad ever forgave himself for being so selfish and being a coward not to face the music with mom. He always still deep in his heart at his death, bed confessed that he always loved mom and never stopped he just couldnt find a cure for her. He also said he was so stupid to leave the farm and to persue a life other then the farm. He missed his brothers and the closeness and stability they gave one another. Also selling out our inheritance he was so sorry. I could have cared less. And forgave him. If he could only do things over. It was so sad. He passed of cancer in 1990 almost 10 yrs to the day of moms passing.
Mom is buried in THE LEXINGTON CEMETARY in the Nuckols plot in Lexington, Kentucky and Dad is buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens beside his wife Patty just outside Melbourne, Florida.
I miss them everyday. Both in different ways but both lovingly. They tried to make the best out of a horrible situation. The memories I have of both are cute and fun and some sad but most of all my childhood was fairly happy. Its amazing how tragedies can change and sometime destroy a family. It takes lots of courage, love and patience to make families work and lots of forgiveness. I tell you this from experience because I have lived it. But we live through it and smile at the great moments and learn from the bad ones. OK enough of the morbid stuff tomorrow more fun stuff. Love my family--- they all mean the world to me. My brother Hi will never know I guess how proud and how much I love him. Its a shame we dont communicate anymore then we do but we dont. He is my only beginning family that I have left.
My sweet family give me the reason to keep on going. I love them all. I have a special moments in my heart for each of them. Its my love for them that makes me happy!!!
See you tomorrow with more!!

I must admit its an old house but a beautiful house. Many memories tend to rumble through my head when I look at it. It has changed a lot. We had white fences when I was growing up and there was a fence around the side yard at the top of the hill. We also had cattle guards that kept the cows and horse out of the yard with out having to have a gate. Over in the trees at the base of the hill is where the spring house is to this day.

My cousin lives in the house now. His family added the back end onto the house. It enlarged the kitchen and put a huge family room off of the kitchen and a large back foyer. Its nice but makes the house really large. The older house had 9 rooms and 3 baths, bar, den, formal living and dining, 4 bedrooms, back porch and two pantrys--storage and butler pantries. I love that old house. It has a large porch all the way across the front.

We had a smoke house and a chicken house and a two car detached garage in the back of the house. Dad and mom used the buildings for storage and finally they were torn down. The garage stayed but I think burned down after my cousin moved into the house. I think they rebuilt the garage. I still go by to see Alfred my cousin when I go home to visit. He is always a good host. He takes time out from his schedule to chat and have a cup of coffee with us.

I hope this gives you an idea of the closeness that we Nuckols shared as we were growing up.

We had 3 cherry trees in the side yard, 2 crabapple trees, 2 huge walnut trees and a pear tree.

Mom tried to raise a couple of peach trees but they always died. Mom loved Peonies, Janquils, crocus iris and tulips. We had a fence row of peonies they were bright red. I loved the smell.

Moms favorite smelling flower was gardenia. Bad thing is we couldnt raise them in Kentucky.

We also had forsytha bushes big big bright yellow--- I should know they made wonderful switches LOL

Well wanted you to get an idea of the house and how it has evolved through all this time. Hope the picture gives you an idea. It was taken by my brother in law from Spring Station Road. I will show older pictures of the house as I get to them. OK that is it for today.

Needless to say that my parents became very busy. The farm started growing and I still was the only child of Martha and Hiram Nuckols. My dad would lug me around with him on the farm as often as he could. I can remember walking through tall fields of tobacco and having tobacco worm fights with my cousin Nucks. He was a Charles Nuckols III so we just called him Nucks. Those worms were huge and green and ugly. We would chase each other all over the place trying to squirt the insides on one another. Dad thought it was hilarious but mom would throw a fit when I would get home with worm juice all over me. LOL I was a Tom boy due to my dads doings. I loved to round up cattle on the horse with him and go to the barns and check out the tobacco when it was curing. We had farmhands that hung the tobacco way up in the top of barns we had coal stoves that burned during the nite and it would cure the tobacco. This was a long process. Finally it was ready and we would take it to market. My dad and his brothers bought into a share of 4th Street Tobacco Warehouse in Lexington, Kentucky. Thats where we sold lots of Burley. Thats the kind of tobacco that Kentucky sold. It was bought by the big Tobacco Co. and processed into pipe, chewing, and cigar tobacco.. The tobacco in N. Carolina and Va. were bought and processed into cigarette tobacco. They were graded into 3 different grades
A, B, and C A grade was for cigar, B was for chew and C was ground and processed for pipe. It was a great part of the season for us cause we mostly had grade A and got usually top dollar for our crop. We were allotted a large acreage from the government to raise.
My granddad had a contract with the government to raise hemp during the war. We raised lots of it from what I was told. It was raised and harvested to make rope for the warships and other things they needed. Until I left the farm we still had government inspectors come and check to make sure the hemp crops had been destroyed and none had been growing wild. Hemp seeds blow and start growing anywhere they land. So we burned lots of small little patches that would pop up here and there. Thats one of the downfalls of doing a contract with the government. LOL They always pop up unannounced.
Granddad was a stern old guy. You could never put anything over on him. We had L&N railroad that ran through our farm. In some ways it was good in some it was bad. We could buy cattle and have them delivered right to the farm. We had a cattle shute where we could recieve cattle right off the train. That was fun too, watching them flow off the cattle car right into the field.
But the railroad workers tend to make my granddad a little angry. We had huge stone walls that ran along the railroad at crossings on the farm. The workers (which were predominantly black at that time) would sit and eat their lunches or take their breaks on the stone fences. This angered my granddad being of that generation he said they looked like big black crows sitting on his walls. So he asked the railroad to advise the workers not to sit on the walls. They continued, so as soon as they were finished he had the work hands on our farm cement pointed stones on top of the walls. They never sat on them again.
I to this day can remember those guys swinging hemp hooks and maintaining the railroads.
During the times in late summer or fall the sparks of the trains would set the weeds along the railroad on fire. That was scarey. The horses would run and the fires would spread. Of course we didnt have hydrants that far out from town so thank goodness for the spring below the house. It saved many an acre during my childhood. Of course this was another way that my grandfather would get even. He would bill the railroad for the man power used and the damage and the fresh spring water he used from the spring. LOL He was a bugger!! And believe it or not the railroad always paid him.
Mom and dad, when they first moved into our little house didnt have indoor plumbing. Guess how they got it??? Yepper the railroad made it possible with the charges granddad got from the billing of damage. LOL Mom got indoor plumbing and she was elated back then. LOL I was 2 yrs old when this happened. Thanks granddad for giving me a real potty to potty train in. LOL
OK thats all for today. Hopefully I can get in another tonite or tomorrow.
Let it be known that my granddad always took a negative and turned it into a positive for the family.

Mom and Dad were always busy with the farm. My grandfather, dad and brothers were always trying to make the farm more well known and expanding their clients in the horse business. After many years the chicken house disappeared and everything was put into horses and tobacco. Those were the two main resources of the farm. BUTT, I can remember when we had a chicken house and it was full of chickens. I loved collecting the eggs and chasing the chickens. It was not unusual for me to squeeze an egg or two just to make a mess. Mom was not too happy about the eggs being squeezed. We all lived on the farm. The Nuckols clan lived only a paddock away from one another. Nana and Dad were the head of the households. We all shared gardens, eggs, beef, and milk. Mom took it one step further and made butter, cottage cheese and butter milk. Spring was a busy time of the year on the farm. The annual garden was planted. It had everything. We all shared in its produce and it was delicious. The spring house was a natural endless production of watercress and mint. It was everywhere and we would pick it and put it in a large container along with moms cottage cheese and butter she made and take it to the Country Club to the chef. This helped pay some of our dues for the coming year at the Country Club. Later on, the mint and watercress became a gift to the chefs at the CC due to mom.
Reaping what ya sow was a fun time but lots of work. We would spend hours snapping beans, popping peas and butter beans, shucking corn (leaving some on the cob and cutting lots off) washing leaf lettuce, cutting beets, canning tomatoes and peppers. So we stayed busy all summer. Dad and his brothers would take a two beefs to market and we would split them among the families.
We kids played together and always had something going on. It was a great time to be a child--we would make clover chains, fly junebugs on the end of a piece of thread, jump in the leaves make forts and ride the horses that were bought for us to ride. On Sundays we all gathered at Nana and Dads for Sunday dinner. We were introduced to many delicious recipes that came from Nanas kitchen. First time I had Vicychoise and Oyster stew was at my Nana's. I learned that there were manners and what utensils to use. That a napkin always was the first thing you touched when you sat down and you didnt sit down till the head of the table sat first. Blessings were always said and DAD always was the one to say them. As we grew a little older DAD would let us take a turn and it was a priviledge when he chose you to say blessing. As the family grew so did the tables at Nana's. She had two 10 seat tables. The main dining and then the children were set up right beside the main dining table. We were never to far away. Yep manners and etiquette and trying new dishes that we might be exposed to at other homes that we might visit were always put in front of us and taught. Nana was the best teacher with all her southern charm and ways of entertaining. She was a wonderful woman. Dont ever under estimate the knowledge of a grandmother. She was a wonderful teacher and example to learn from as a young person.
One time she had all of us spend the nite. We were to learn how to eat spaghetti if visiting or at an event. It was hilarious. She showed us what happened when you took a strand of spaget and sucked it the sauce flying everywhere on us on her glasses and was a mess. Then she taught us to cut the spaget and to take our fork and slide it under the strands sideways. It worked!!! Of course we still loved to get her with the sucking and she took it all in stride. She laughed then got down to business.

I know that it was a cloudy cold rainy day when I was born. The day was suppose to be a pretty day it was May. On May 10, 1946 a chubby dark haired little girl was born at the Old St. Joseph's Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.
Mom and dad brought me home to the farm in Midway, Kentucky about a week later. It was a modest house and sat on a hill with a spring house at the bottom of the hill with an underground spring. We had an old dog by the name of Brandy. He was so spoiled and owned the old wicker chair in the front foyer. I was named after my great Aunt Helen McKinlay. She was my grandfathers spinster sister. So my Christian given name is Helen McKinlay Nuckols.
Our house was a darling house and had been added onto. It used to be a log house and was updated in the late 30's. I had a cozy little bedroom down the hall from my parents. The bath and a closet separated the bedrooms. So I figured out if I yelled loud and long enough Mom would hear me and I would get to snuggle with both of them early in the mornings.
The first funny thing that mom bought me was a two faced doll. One side cried and one side smiled. I got to where I would mimick the faces when mom would turn them. If it was on the crying face I would bawl, if it was on the smiling face I would giggle out loud. I was the talk of moms luncheons and cocktail parties. Built in entertainment. LOL
Now how special was that!!!

In the Beginning...

Spring House at Home

How it all began I really dont know. My mom and dad were of different walks of life. My mom was of the big city of Lexington and daughter of a fairly well known Pediatrician. My dad was of a well known horse breeder in Woodford County Kentucky. I guess what would we do without friends.

What I know of my grandparents are really disappointing seeing how now that Im getting older I really feel I didnt know them all that well. Its amazing that when we are young and thinking of other things that we dont take that much of an interest of where we came from and what our Great and grand parents did with their lives.

I know that my Mothers father was born in New York City, Charles Miles McKinlay and was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey. He was a great swimmer and went to University of Penn. He won a collegiant swimming medal in 1909. He went to Columbia University and became a doctor and specialized in Pediatrics. He served in WW I as a Medic and met my grandmother. My grandmother was born to Gay and Volney Ferguson, they named her Martha Ferguson. Great Pop was a well known tobacco farmer from Paris, Kentucky, Bourbon Co. He loved the land. She was one of seven children. All the boys helped on the farm and grandmother was primed for suitable suitors. I guess that was my grandfather cause they were married and moved to New York City so he could finish his residency. He did his residency at what was known then as Roosevelt Hospital.

On May 28, 1923 my mom was born they named her Martha Ferguson McKinlay. I know that my grandmother(we called her Mina) had a very difficult time concieving and had to spend most of her pregnancy in bed. It was so difficult for her being away from home and family. She missed the closeness of her family and the wide open spaces of Kentucky.

When mom was 6 months old she got to leave the Big Apple (lol) and go spend her life in Lexington, Kentucky as the daughter of a Doctors.

I do know that the my father was the son of Charles Nuckols, Sr. He was a stern man, very old fashioned in his thinking in todays times and was a well known horse breeder and tobacco farmer in the small town of Midway, Kentucky, Woodford County. As in the Thoroughbred circle he was very well known and admired. He was a man not to cross and always had an angle to turn things to his benefit. More about him later. We called him DAD and he under all that stiff stuff a sweet, lovable man. He was so admired by me.

My sweet Nana, Hetty Rogers, was from Shreveport, La. I dont know how my grandparents met. I never asked, those are things that you wish you had asked when you were younger and had the chance. I am going to do some snooping and find out though. LOL She was of a very good family and loved her church and also loved family. She was a strong woman and expected nothing but respect from her children. A kiss and big hug and an ILOVE YOU NANA melted her like butter when it came to her grandkids.

My father was born on June 20, 1924. He was named Hiram Rogers Nuckols. He was the 3rd child born out of 5 children. There was a daughter that was stillborn or passed away as a very young infant. He and his brothers were brought up to carry on the Nuckols traditions of horsemanship and tobacco raising. Of which they did after my grandfathers death.

Mom and Dad were married in November of 1944. They were married during WWII and so tokens were given out for gas. Their honeymoon consisted of a swift drive to Cinncinnatti, Ohio. They spent a long week- end and then mom and dad came back to settle on the farm in Midway.

Well this is the start of the beginning of my oh so full life.

The picture is of the springhouse below our house on the farm. We had many a funtime there. It has changed so. But is still beautiful to me.