Simply Lou: The Case of the Electric Grandmother

article and illustrations by LOU DAVENPORT

News Flash! Arcadia, La, 1943. Woman nearly dies from being struck by lightning while preparing lunch in her kitchen. The unidentified female was rushed to Arcadia Hospital where it is reported she is in fair condition.
Well, it could have been reported something like that. The truth is, my grandmother, Emma Mae Della Colvin Turner Moon, DID get struck by lightning! She was preparing lunch in the kitchen of the old family home near Simsboro, Louisiana. A thunderstorm raged outside and as she reached for the handle of the refrigerator, lightning came through and stuck her! It threw her across the room, knocked her out, and melted her slip to her body. Her shoes were blown clear off her feet, and lay in a corner of the kitchen.
I’m not sure which family members rushed her to the hospital, but thankfully, she got there.
She didn’t remember much of what happened, but she did say that slip that burned to her body, “Hurt like hell.” She recovered completely, doctors were amazed, as was everyone else who heard this… but they didn’t know my mamaw Mae.
It wouldn’t be the first of my mamaw’s amazing experiences. Not by a long shot. She was born in Simsboro in 1905. Her brother, Dick, and two sisters, Bev and LaVerne, were as well. All of them were extremely smart, and her two sisters and brother migrated to New York when they were grown. She stayed behind, got her first teaching degree, and married my grandfather, Earl Turner. I never knew him, because he died of a brain tumor when he was in his early fifties.
She told great stories about him. Seems he was a very good baseball player, but was hit in the head during a game with friends. The thought was that he could have developed the tumor from that. Whatever the reason, he sounded like a great guy. He and Mamaw had five children; my mom, Carolyn, and then Virginia, Bud, Sam, and Richard.
My Mamaw “mothered” all kinds of relatives right along with her own family. Her sister-in-law, Ethyl, was handicapped, and Mamaw took care of her until Ethyl’s needs were such that she had to go live at Pinecrest School near Alexandria. I remember going to visit her with my mama and mamaw. We took her a doll; she was like a little girl, and oh so sweet. Mamaw visited her until Ethyl passed away.
After all of her children, my mother, aunts, and uncles grew up, she moved to Ruston. Mamaw taught 5th grade for as long as I can remember. She retired, but kept teaching at a
private school in Ruston until she became ill. If
that hadn’t “retired her,” I guess she would have happily died in a classroom. She loved teaching kids THAT much.
Her little house on Bernard Street was not even a block from Ruston Elementary School where she taught. If it wasn’t raining, she walked there. My cousins, Rose, Cindy, and Linda got to live with her for a while. Rose and Cindy got to have her for their 5th grade teacher, and they both remember walking back and forth to school with her.
Her house was the perfect house for her grandkids. She didn’t care how messy we were, and let us run around like a bunch of “wild Indians!” There were all kinds of books and art supplies we were welcome to put to use. Really, it was just fun to hang out with her, she was such a fun lady!
Her house had a big picture window in the living room. She had a big metal shelf in front of it where she grew African Violets, not just the plain kind either. She could grow the exotic ones, and they were so beautiful.
She’d tell us all kinds of stories, too, true ones! She told us that she was out on the porch of the old house in Simsboro shelling peas one day. The road in front of the house was gravel then, and a very expensive car drove up and stopped. Inside were a “sharp dressed” man and an elegantly dressed woman that were definitely “over dressed” for the area. The man politely asked her for directions to New Orleans. She told them that she could only get them so far, since she didn’t know all the back roads in Louisiana. The man graciously thanked her, and drove away in a cloud of dust. She said she didn’t give them much thought except that they sure were dressed up.
Not too long after, a newspaper came her way, and she found out all about the “sharp dressed” man that had asked her for directions. It was Alvin Karpus from Chicago, one of Al Capone’s henchmen! He was arrested in New Orleans, and Mamaw then knew why he was needing to lay low on the back roads. I always wondered if Alvin had a machine gun in the trunk of that fancy car!
Speaking of cars, Mamaw was known for driving big cars. She was a “Mercury Woman,” through and through. The first time I heard Alan Jackson’s “Mercury Blues,” I thought of her, and still do. The thing was, Mamaw was the WORST driver there ever was. All of her grandkids have their own horror stories of riding with her. I like the one about her not being able to find a parking place at Wal-Mart, and being a bit outdone about it. She saw a parking place that was full of shopping baskets, and told Cindy and Linda Mae to “hang on” as she punched the gas in the Mercury, and had shopping baskets going every which way!
I’m sure she just got her tiny, petite self out of her big Mercury, carrying an air about her like she hadn’t done anything more than park.
Her driving got so bad that my Uncle Sam took her big, blue Mercury to his shop, and told her that the part he needed for it just hadn’t come in yet. That kept her off the roads for a while, but before too long, she got the car back, and was up to her old tricks. My cousin, David, shared
with me the story that finally put the brakes on her freewheeling driving career., when she nearly killed them both by cutting in front of two 18 wheelers. She (for once) scared herself, and turned the keys over to him, and simply said, “I don’t need to drive anymore.”
From then on, my cousin, Rose, became her chauffeur and shopping companion, and bless her heart, because it was no easy task to shop with her. She’d wear you out way before she would even get started.
Mamaw may have gotten a master’s degree and 30 hours above, but she had no clue about matching colors. She would wear all kinds of prints, patterns, and colors, but none of them came close to ever “working.” She could have cared less! One of my cousins said, “Oh no, Mamaw’s got her clown clothes on again!” She just didn’t care! I think she was much more into “comfort” instead of fashion, but I think her style was just as great and awesome as Baddie Winkle.
Mamaw also loved music. She had a huge hi-fi cabinet stereo and some great vinyl. She loved Floyd Cramer and Glenn Miller, but I really liked for her to crank up Sam Butera and the Witnesses. She went to see Bobby Darin in Las Vegas and said he was good, but that Sandra Dee, his wife and movie star, was “drunk as a skunk,” (her words, not mine).
One thing Mamaw believed in was traveling and seeing as much of the world as you could. She went on a “Tech Rome” trip, and took my cousin, Rose. She’d go on any tour Louisiana Tech sponsored, and I do believe she saw most of the United States. I loved and looked forward to when she would go places with me and my parents. We went to California, New Mexico, and New York together. Oh what a time we had!
In New York, we got to see her brother, and sisters, and all of their children. We spent an afternoon at her sister’s, visiting around their outdoor grill, under an awning that said “Murphy’s Lounge.” Aunt Bev’s husband, Uncle Nick, had gotten it from a real bar, and that was their last name. We were treated to a tour of Teddy Roosevelt’s home on Oyster Bay, New York. Mamaw’s family was truly just as fun as she was, and sadly, all of them are gone now, but thankfully all of the cousins aren’t.
Thanks to Facebook, I am able to stay in touch with my New York cousins. There’s Randy, Joanne, and Kathy down in Georgia. My Memphis cousins, Teresa and Joe, and there’s Debra, James Earl, David, Rose, Cindy, Linda Mae, Denise, and Donna that are all close by. Mamaw loved all of her grandkids, and would be overjoyed that we all try to keep in touch. I can remember her calling me to tell me everything going on with everyone, and THEIR kids! She did not miss a thing.
My three children never got to know my mother since she died before they were born, but Mamaw made sure they knew her though. They just adored her! She came to stay with me when I had Carolyn, my first born, as I didn’t know one thing about babies. She taught me how to bathe her, burp her, and all that important stuff you need to know. She also made her a little yellow gown, by HAND. It was so soft, and Carolyn wore it until she outgrew it. When Paige came along, she wore it too. I still have it as I sit here today. She was just so good to me and my kids, too.
I named this tribute to my grandmother “The Case of the Electric Grandmother” because she loved her Perry Mason shows.