In West Memphis, Arkansas on August 5, 1947 Albert and Robirda Ray had a daughter that they named Vinnell Ray. Vinnell Ray, is my grandma, who has nine other siblings. Her siblings are Jane, Tommy, Albert Jr, Shirley, Herman, Alma, Curtis, Mary, and Terry. She is the oldest sister and happens to be Albert’s, her father, favorite. Her father would always be teaching her how to drive car or trucks and how to do the mechanical work instead of her other siblings. Vinnell attended a segregated school in West Memphis for elementary school. The name of her elementary was Marian. Before she went to school she would have to get up in the morning and go work in the fields and do the same once she returned home. One vivid memory she has from Marian was
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They moved from Arkansas to Missouri because her father, Albert, had to relocate for his job as a share cropper. On the farm they had their own livestock and gardens. They, Vinnell’s parents, would butcher their own hogs and other meat to eat. Their gardens were always filled with different kinds of fruit and vegetables. Vinnell vividly can remember the taste of her mother’s homemade plum jelly where the plums would come from their garden. She also can recall watching her mother break the chickens’ neck and watching the chickens run around for a few minutes. Vinnell did not mind helping out around the house as long as it was inside. She hated the outdoors unlike all her siblings. She was the sibling who enjoyed cooking and housekeeping. She would watch and help her mother all the time with cooking, sewing, doing laundry. At a point in Vinnell’s life she learned how to make most of her clothing. Before she learned how to make her own clothing her mother would made the children their clothing out of flour meal sacks, they were the 50 pounds of flour meal sacks. All the children had one pair of shoes. She also had to help her mother in the morning make three pans of biscuits from scratch for breakfast. Three meals a day was very important to her family. Her family did not have a lot of money but they never went hungry.
Robirda, Vinnell’s mother, was a home maker. She stayed at home raising the kids and
They moved from Arkansas to Missouri because her father, Albert, had to relocate for his job as a share cropper. On the farm they had their own livestock and gardens. They, Vinnell’s parents, would butcher their own hogs and other meat to eat. Their gardens were always filled with different kinds of fruit and vegetables. Vinnell vividly can remember the taste of her mother’s homemade plum jelly where the plums would come from their garden. She also can recall watching her mother break the chickens’ neck and watching the chickens run around for a few minutes. Vinnell did not mind helping out around the house as long as it was inside. She hated the outdoors unlike all her siblings. She was the sibling who enjoyed cooking and housekeeping. She would watch and help her mother all the time with cooking, sewing, doing laundry. At a point in Vinnell’s life she learned how to make most of her clothing. Before she learned how to make her own clothing her mother would made the children their clothing out of flour meal sacks, they were the 50 pounds of flour meal sacks. All the children had one pair of shoes. She also had to help her mother in the morning make three pans of biscuits from scratch for breakfast. Three meals a day was very important to her family. Her family did not have a lot of money but they never went hungry.
Robirda, Vinnell’s mother, was a home maker. She stayed at home raising the kids and