Janice Shults
Oh my goodness! So many memories, so many times we were together in the company of the whole family or alone, just the two of us sharing intimacies between two friends. My precious Aunt June was just a kid when I was born in 1942. She babysat for her sister Dollye, my mom. We never really grew apart even though the miles between us were great. Bill and I lived all over the country, many many miles from Memphis but that did not impede our friendship. The marathon telephone calls kept us in touch.
One memory which really stands out for me is when she and Uncle Bill came to Wesson for a flea market/craft show. June and I stayed up on Friday talking, talking, talking; which we did so well and at great length. When we finally got to bed, it seemed the clock was running at double time. We had to get up early to set up their craft table and 5:00 a.m. was REALLY EARLY after a night of conversation. When I woke June that morning, she said "Good Grief, I've had naps longer than that!" Oh Really!!! LOL!!! That sentence is embedded in my head and I've used it many times since that morning.
June and Uncle Bill came to visit us on Monteagle Mountain when we purchased an old, historic home. They were so excited for us and as I was showing June the living room of the house, I reached and "threw open the sash" of one window. It immediately fell to the ground outside. We got hysterical with laughter when she said to me, "Can you imagine your Mom living here with windows that fall out?" I still get a kick out of that memory and the answer is NO, my Mom would never even have considered living in a home which was that primitive! But it sure appealed to me and June.
We loved to laugh and reminisce about our wonderful Strickland family and the great times we had with them in MamMaw and PapPaw's home on Minna Place at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I miss her already so very much; just knowing I'll never get another recipe share or swap recipe books with and from her. There won't be another birthday greeting from her (she never forgot.) There will never be another person in my life who knows me as she knew me and she never betrayed me. We were kin, and we were lifelong friends.
Goodbye my sweet June Bug! I cherish the memories and our time together.
Jan Baby (aka: Janice Carter Shults)
