Mom Stories
Plenty of Clothes, Plenty of Food – recorded
Liver – recorded
You’re Goin’ Too Fast – recorded
Dad Stories
Conversion – recorded
Wildflowers and Wildfires – recorded
The Trash Dump – recorded
Memories of Dad and Mom
Memories of Dad and Mom – recorded
Trout, Salmon & Ribs – recorded
Places We’ve Lived
We lived in Wrangell, Alaska in 60-62, where Allison was born. I had an emergency teaching certificate. We came back to Mississippi State for Hurston to go to school while I worked. He finished his degree in Forestry in January of 1964, then lived in Winona, Mississippi during the week and came home on the weekends while he worked in the Yazoo-Little Tallahatchie watershed. I was taking classes at Mississippi State and living in Starkville. Then when I finished at Mississippi State (in Education) in August of 1964, we moved to Oregon for a couple of years, and Ruthanne was born in Lebanon, Oregon. It took us a while to finish our degrees because we did it the hard way.
We lived in Sweet Home, Oregon, then Mill City, and then we transferred to Washington State, which is when I asked Hurston, ‘when are we going to go home?’ I was a Southern girl, Mississippi is my home, and he likes it out west. He answered, ‘well, I didn’t plan to go home,’ and I said, ‘I didn’t plan to stay!’
So we moved to Berea, Kentucky next, where Hurston worked on the Daniel Boone National Forest and then Hurston was promoted and we transferred to Whitley City, Kentucky, where Allen and Allison finished high school. Allen and Allison went to Mississippi State; Allison had been made homecoming queen at Whitley City, and they flew her back there to crown the new queen the next year. Ruthanne went to Auburn, because we were in south Alabama then.
Kids & Christmas
You know, I was raised where you got things for your birthday and Christmas, and if you wanted anything you just waited til then. I raised my kids the same way. And I look at them and think they are wonderful. Allen is the Supervisor for the North Carolina National Forest and lives in Asheville; Allison is the Director of Recruiting for Metova in Conway, Arkansas; and Ruthanne is the Charge Nurse for the Cardiac Device Clinic at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
When Allison was about 3, barbie dolls came out, but they were just the dolls and had no clothes with them. I told Mama that’s what I’m getting Allison for Christmas, and she just said, ‘surely you’re not getting that girl a naked doll for Christmas!’ ‘Yep,’ I said, ‘that’s what I’m getting her!’ and I made clothes for the doll. I gave both Allison and Ruthanne a shoebox full of clothes for their barbie dolls. Allison’s longtime boyfriend had a couple of girls, and she pulled out that shoebox for them to play with.
I used to read, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” to Allison at Christmas time, and she would say ‘don’t read that page.’ I don’t remember what that page was, but she would not let me read it. Both Allison and Ruthanne are like that: if you cross a line you know it. They don’t let anyone ride over them, just like their Daddy. I like that about them.
Larrupin
When we were in Sweet Home and Ruthanne was about 3, Mom and Dad flew in for a visit. And Daddy was stretched out on the couch eating popcorn and said to Ruthanne, ‘Ooh, Ruthanne, this is larrupin!’ And she asked what that was, and he said ‘so good that you can’t stop eating it!’
[Note: there are several different spellings of this word, including larrupin, larapin, and larupin, but all are regional slang meaning something that is extremely good or tasty]
We must have told that story many times. So one day when Ruthanne was about 5 and we were living in Washington, Papaw bought the girls some penny candy and they had it in little paper bags, and Ruthanne had been hitting her bag against her leg and it broke. Daddy was fussing at her about it, and she said, ‘Papaw, isn’t that larrupin!’ She was hoping to not get in trouble if she used his word.
Family
There are a lot of Georges in the Mullendore family: my grandfather was George Decatur, my father was George Allen, my brother was George Pierce, and my nephew is George Michael. My nephew’s daughter just told me today she’s going to name her daughter Georgia in their honor. That is very special to me.
Allen has two daughters. Anna Lisa got her Education degree at Old Miss, and degrees in Communications and Public Relations at Mississippi State. She is married to Taylor Roberts and had our first great granddaughter, Gracie. Allen’s daughter Kelsey studied Forestry at Mississippi State and then got her law degree at Old Miss and is working as a lawyer in Winona, Mississippi. She is married to Garrett Dismukes and their first baby is due September 3.
Ruthanne has a son and a daughter. Gabe finished his degree in advertising at the University of Oregon and is an intern with an advertising company in Portland. His sister Audrey is in Toronto, Canada and has an internship with the Canadian government. She will start in the Fall at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) in Georgia. We’re excited about that!
Allen has his Eagle badge. That’s a big deal in our family. My brother got it, Allen got it, one niece has 2 boys and they both got it, the other niece has 3 boys and they got it, and their husbands are both Eagle Scouts, too. Allen was a little older when he finished; he was so close and I had to threaten him to get him to finish it. Papaw told him if he would finish, he’d buy him a gun. We’re just country people, we like hunting and fishing.
Mom’s Family
My Mom was born in 1912 and was the oldest of 7. She was about 16 when the last one was born. Her daddy took all the kids somewhere, and when they came back, the baby was there. Mama didn’t even know her mother was pregnant! Of course, you didn’t talk about those things back then.
My mom was Ruth, and there was James, Ida Louise, Sybil, Doris, Rosser and Thad. They were raised out in the country. One day a storm blew up and Mamaw only counted 6; Sybil was missing. Well, she’d fallen asleep in the cottonseed bin. When she woke up and came home, Mamaw just wore her out and told her never to go anywhere without telling her. So a little later there was a knock at the door, and Sybil said, ‘Mama, I’m going to the toilet!’ which was of course an outhouse back then.
One Sunday, Ida Louise was cooking dinner while everyone else was at church, because they were bringing home company. When they got home, every bowl in the house was filled with rice, because she’d cooked a cup for each person!
Another time Mamaw and Pappy had company for Sunday dinner, they were all at the table,seven kids too, and the company was commenting how good the cotton looked all chopped. Pappy said that all the kids had helped, then Sybil interrupted, “Daddy said I was his best hoer.”
How We Met
Hurston came from Century, Florida, and had a football scholarship to go to Southwest Mississippi Junior College and was a year ahead of me. Well, I was sitting out in front of the dorm, acting a fool – a friend offered me tobacco and I took a bite – and I saw this goodlookin’ guy standing there with his hand on his hip and asked who that was, and they said, ‘well, that’s Hurston Nichols,’ because that’s what they called him back then, but his name was Nicholas. And I just jumped up and ran inside, and he asked them, “what is wrong with that girl?”
And here we are, 62 years later, we’re 81 and 82! His birthday is April 3 and he’ll be 83 then, and I’ll turn 82 November 22. When we were married, Huston was 20 years and four months, and I was almost 19. And on our first anniversary, August 31, Allen was born, in Magnolia, Mississippi, where I was from. The same doctor that delivered me delivered him.
When I told my Dad we were getting married, he asked ‘who to?’! And when I said Hurston, he said ‘he’s just a boy’!
