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GO TO NEW STUFF PAGE OR HOME PAGE OR NELLIE/WILLIAM OR to Harry Greene PAGE MILDRED Nellie/Wm>Mildred Mildred Regina Burdett, born April 1, 1908, and married to
Harry Greene (5/24/1902-1/14/88). Mildred died September, 1984.
L-Jennie Elizabeth Hanlon
Greene, Harry Greene's mother (Nanny) Ivan is out of the hospital and is in rehab. He has partial use of his right hand and right leg. He can write by printing. Every time I go to see him he has improved more. I don't know how long he will be in rehab. Merry Christmas to all of you. Corky 12/24/2005
Ivan
Greene (Nellie/Wm>Mildred>William Ivan) had a stroke. His
right arm is paralyzed. He can move everything but his arm. He
was sleeping in a trailer where he has been staying, and he got
up to go to the bathroom. He slumped to the floor and couldn't
get up. He lay there all night until his aunt by marriage found
him when she went over to the trailer to ask if he wanted breakfast.
She called Eddie (Ivan's brother) who came and helped her get
him up. He told them to call 911. They got him to Tampa General,
and TG did a lot of tests on him. The diagnosis was a light stroke.
TG did an angeogram Tuesday, December 13. They thought he may
have a blockage in the left side of his neck because the left
side of his brain would have been affected. They said they would
either have to put in a balloon or a stint, that if it was too
bad they would have to operate, but they decided to not do either.
It hasn't impaired his speech or thinking. When I went in Tuesday
he was his old self, laughing and joking and carrying on. They
say he probably will regain some use of his right arm. He in all
probability will be able to walk. All the walking in the parking
garage and the hospital left me unable to go today to see him.
If you want to contact him or send him something: William I. Greene,
813-844-1889, 9th Floor Tampa General Hospital. He can't reach
the phone to answer it, so if you call him ask the nurse to help
him move the phone so he can use it. Cecelia "Corky"
Greene Wofford, sister May
25/2005--After 3 weeks of almost no computer (quasi - broken)
I'm returning email messages. Update
on LC. He was transfered to the Durand Convalescent Home about
a week ago (mid May) and a couple days ago was re-admitted to
Owosso Memorial Hospital. His temperature was elevated, fluid
was collecting on the lungs and they suspected either congestive
heart failure or pneumonia. We await a diagnosis and pray for
total recovery as God is Jehovah Raphe - the Healer. Mom (Janet)
says the battle is God's to fight. She is tired and has been traveling
and fending for herself since April 18th when this all started.
Pray for her as well to receive supernatural strength and encouragement
from God. I think all of us in the family are feeling the stress
of our "Poppa" in need. We love mom and dad. They have
been like real parents to me over the years. Charlie and I were
married June 5th 1976. LC said, "Now I finally have a daughter!".
I've known them for around 35 years and feel truely adopted as
a daughter.Chrissie Mack May 17, 2005--From Chrissie. Here's an update on the past week's events in my Father's recovery from his stroke. Last week the doctors removed the shunt from his brain - said the pressure in his brain had stabilized. Good news: his brain has resumed its natural function of removing excess fluid. No evidence of seizure, so they took him off the anti-seizure medicine, which means he is more alert, although he sleeps a lot, which is normal for stroke recovery. There has been NO MORE bleeding in his brain since the initial attack April 18, which is VERY good news. He has a slight lung infection, so he's on antibiotics. He's been moved from the UM hospital to a Care Facility in Flint. My Mother is praying for a space at Durand Convalescent Center. They're pretty good, and looks likely that there will be an opening soon. Dad moves his right side ok; left side with some difficulty. He has speech, but it's hard to understand sometimes. Mom says he has good days and bad days. He wants to talk A LOT when we are there, which the doctors say is very good. Dave has observed that some sounds are easier to form than others, depending on how they are formed. Perhaps Dave missed his calling; maybe he should have been a speech therapist! Although Dave did go to Speech Camp in College. They had him fill his mouth with marbles, and learn to have clear diction with a mouth full of marbles. Each day you take out another marble. When you've lost all your marbles, you're a certified Speaker! The family visits Dad regularly. Mom; brothers and wives; grandchildren. Each day he has visitors. We have a notebook/ guest book in his room, with a daily listing of who has been there, and what we've observed, plus any pertinent information that the doctors might have told us. Thanks for praying! Do keep praying for Dad. And for Mom, the 4 Sons have realized that an important part of our job is looking out for Mom during this taxing time, and making sure she doesn't get worn out. And that the house chores get done. The fish are pretty safe with Dad being gone. And Aunt Pansy misses her Golf Buddy. Pray for Dad as he goes through the rehab process. We're all anxious to see fast improvement; but there will be some time involved. Blessings, Chrissie Report
by Chrissie Mack
05/04/05
Report
by Chrissie Mack April 25, 2005 (Nellie/Wm>Mildred>Janet>Charles/husband
of Chrissie) April 22, 2005-L.C. Mack, husband of Janet Greene Mack, suffered a cerebral aneurysm and is hospitalized. Janet reports that L.C. is unable to speak, but he is improving. Initially he was flown by helicopter to the University of Michigan Medical Center Intensive Care Unit, but after he became somewhat stabilized he was moved to a second hospital. No further details are known at this time. For contact information Family Click Here.
LC & JANET MACK 2001 8-15-2004--A Conversation With Corky Greene Wofford Earline, Yvette and I had the camper (trailer) with us. We were told to evacuate (in the path of Hurricane Charley). We got to the center of the state in Lake Wales. We found a place to park at an RV place, plugged in the TV and turned it on, and they said the hurricane had switched directions and was headed right for us. So we packed up and came back home. We had a mini campout, and I think we were in Lake Wales about an hour. I kept hearing a loud noise, and we found out it was a tornado. It just missed us, but it shook the whole trailer. The dirt in Lake Wales is embedded in everything. They had been predicting that the hurricane would come right up Tampa Bay. As it was, we had about five hours warning. It has now been raining for about five days. If we hadn't been sitting high and dry we would have been flooded like so many others around here were. Jennie
Elizabeth Hanlon Greene, Harry Greene's mother (Nanny) NANNY'S PILLS UPDATE BY CORKY In those days it was illegal to make or sell contraceptives. Nanny sold her pills by word of mouth. She had to call them suppositories for vaginal infections. She had a special rolling pin that she rolled them out with, and she didn't use it for anything else. She had a thimble with a hole in both ends, sort of like a cylinder. That's how they used to make thimbles years ago, and they pushed on the side of them instead of the end when they were sewing. She would roll this mixture out on the table sort of like piecrust. She used the thimble like a cookie cutter, and the hole in the end enabled her to push the pills out of the thimble. She left the pills flat and round; a round pill that's flat top and bottom. She used the boric acid like flower on the paper and the thimble. She kept them in the refrigerator because of the cocoa butter in them. They could have melted, distorted the shapes. She had little tiny brown bags, smaller than lunch bags. Back then it was usual to get candy in those little bags. She probably got the bags from the drugstore; sold the pills so much per dozen. They weren't individually wrapped. The directions were to insert them & wait a few minutes for them to melt. Alum puckers up, sort of like eating a green persimmon. It may have also been used to close the uterus opening. This may have been some doctor's formula that got handed down to Nanny. It's possible that the woman who gave the recipe to Nanny was the doctor's wife because she and the doctor came to Florida every winter. I think Nanny met her at either a hotel or a boarding house in Plant City and continued the friendship. Nanny would have had to be a good friend of this woman for her to give her the recipe since it was against the law to make or sell contraceptives. Her husband, my grandfather, "Daddy Will", was a painter. They spent their weekends all over this area, checking out these big wooden hotels, scouting out painting jobs. Daddy Will gold leafed the minarets on the roof of Tampa University. At that time what became Tampa University was an exclusive hotel for outdoorsmen. Editor's Note: Corky DOB 1931. Nanny was 65 when Corky was 12 in 1943, so Nanny was born 1878 and married at 19 in 1897. So she must have met the doctor's wife early 1900's.
Mr. & Mrs. Baker ("doctor's wife" - she gave Nanny the pill recipe- couple stayed with Nanny & Daddy Will during Summer visits to Florida from Ohio. ) 1)
How safe is alum? If you eat a Big Mac at McDonalds, you have
just eaten alum. (It's in the pickle) Most public water supply
systems add alum to reduce turbidity, so when you drink city water,
you already consume alum. I wonder if anyone knows how effective this remedy was? It sounds a bit dangerous to me. Let's just put it this way; I'm not sure I would want to use it. Then again, I've pretty much sworn off all birth control anyway. I sure would like to know more home remedies though! Love, Camille 5-23-2003 (Editor's Note: I'm currently working on an update of this story. I expect photos of Nanny and the woman who probably gave her the recipe; maybe no statistics on how affective it was, but I will ask.) NANNY'S PILLS by BILL JOHNS From
the ingredients involved and from overhearing the old folks talk
about one of the ingredients, this home remedy was used, in broad
general terms, as a topical spermicidal. The actual use and application
is beyond the scope of this treatise. Reasoning is as follows:
From high school chemistry, I know that boric acid isn't one of
the primary acids. Therefore, it could be safely used in intimate
contact--perhaps "intimate" isn't the best choice of
words here--with the skin. Cocoa Butter is a mild lubricant and
would readily serve as carrier for the other ingredients. Alum
posed a bit of a puzzle for me. It has been used as an emetic,
an astringent, and as a styptic. The styptic, or astringent function,
I heard mentioned many times as a child. I suspect that the astringent,
or styptic function was the reason for this particular component.
I don't see any use for the emetic function due to the use of
the other ingredients indicating that this was not an ingestible
medication. Also, the emetic function would take care of itself
quite handily some months down the road if this remedy were to
fail, not succeed. And
as previously mentioned, who the beneficiary or beneficiaries
of this home remedy were is in the MYOB category. Hope this helps.
Bill NANNY'S PILLS by Cecelia "Corky" Greene Wofford I used to help Nanny make the pills. She always rolled out the dough and cut the pills, but would explain what she was doing. She used the last digit on her left hand to measure the thickness. Half the thickness of the last digit of her little finger. The formula was: Boric
acid (1 pound I think) (Editor
Note: Mystery solved about "what they did" for birth
control. Who the beneficiaries were of Nanny's pills remains a
mystery. Pills were not ingested. Nanny was Corky's grandmother
on the paternal side. )
Butterfly & Floral Ring Afghan by Corky
L-Crochet with #10 thread by Corky R--Irish Chain Quilt by Cecelia "Corky" Greene Wofford, background is afghan by Corky .
Speaker Raymond Smith (Nellie/Wm>Isabelle>Raymond) -left of Ray & facing each other Brian Greene (N/W>Mildred>Brian) & Judy Franks Berkovits(N/W>Billie>Judy) - Reunion 2002 photo by Barb Burdett S
Janet Greene Mack and her husband, L.C. Mack, are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this month. They were married in July of 1952. Janet reports that they are having a campout for their family at a campground near their house. They plan to enjoy many activities, which will include old-fashioned games such as egg tosses and 3-legged races…Report given by phone by Cecelia Greene Wofford 7-6-02
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The Beginning
by Cecelia Greene Wofford ("Corky") The year was 1931. Mom worked as a private secretary for an attorney, and Dad worked as a bookkeeper for a meat packing company. Mom became pregnant with me and quit her job six months later. A month or so after that Dad lost his job. I was born October 29, 1931. The Depression was on and no jobs were available. Mom and Dad decided to start their own business at home. Dad had worked for a dry cleaning business when he was a teenager, so they decided to start their own dry cleaning plant. They bought books on how to clean garments, how to install and operate a steam boiler, how to install and operate a steam pressing machine, and how to cut, fit and install galvanized iron pipe. The house we lived in had been a church when Mom and Dad bought it. They partitioned it off so it had two bedrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen. The living room had a fireplace on the west end with windows on each side. All of the windows in the house were wooden windows that opened out, mostly in pairs. There were French doors full of small windows that opened into the dining room. The walls and ceilings were plastered with a white sand finish, great for scratching a bee stung foot on except it caused a great big blister on top of the swollen bee sting. The kitchen wasn’t finished. You could see cracks in the walls and clear up to the roof. The only plumbing was a large cast iron sink with a cold water faucet in the kitchen. The outhouse was on the east end of the property, back to back with the next door neighbors’. We were one of the few families that had electricity, running water and a telephone. Telephone calls were limited to 3 minutes. The number was S-5188. We always answered, "Harry’s Cleaners". Before Mom and Dad started the business they had a pitcher pump on the well. Dad had to have running water to operate the boiler, so they put in an electric water pump. My sister, Janet, was born in March, 1934. My brother, Ivan, was born in November, 1936. Daddy Will died shortly after Ivan was born. Nanny had a tin building built on the east lot to store her things and to live in. When the weather got hot she found the building too hot to sleep in. She had out next door neighbor, Mr. Shaw, built a room on the east side of the building out of wood with lots of windows so she would have a cooler place to sleep. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw and their two children moved into the big wooden house across the street until Mr. Moye could build them a small house to live in. It was just east of where we lived. Later we found out that Mr. Shaw was a much better carpenter than Mr. Moye even though his regular job was a butcher for a food store. Ivan was big enough to sleep in a regular bed, iron bed frame with flat springs and a cotton mattress, sometime in 1938. Janet, Ivan and I slept in the front bedroom on the northeast corner of the house. Ivan had his bed against the north and east walls. There was a chest of drawers at the end of Ivan’s bed against the wall next to the living room. Janet and I slept in one bed against the east wall and the wall next to Mom and Dad’s room. There was a door to Mom and Dad’s room at the head of our bed and another in the middle of the room that led into the living room. There was also a closet on the inside wall next to the living room with a wooden door. Dad started beekeeping during World War 11 because sugar was rationed, along with meat, canned goods, shoes and gasoline. This meant that we were also in the honey business. He and Mom bought books and equipment to learn how. Dad also joined the beekeepers association. Dad had a veil with a screen for his face that went over a hat. There was a smoker that he put rags in and pumped to sedate the bees when he robbed their hives. He wore leather gloves at first, but they became more of a nuisance than they were worth because the bees could sting right through them. When Mom and Dad extracted honey they did it in the kitchen. My what a mess, before the night was over the whole house was sticky, even our beds. Bees were everywhere. They would find places to get in that the mosquitoes didn’t know about. One of us kids would invariably walk in the kitchen and step on one.
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That meant a fat foot for a week. At first we would have a high fever and Mom would give us a dose of Epsom salts, now we were not only sick we had the runs. Now picture this, there was a sandy path through the yard full of sandspurs, you are limping on a fat foot, scared to death you’re going to step on a snake, it’s dark as pitch, you step on a sandspur, and stop to pull it out. There was many an accident between the back door and the path to the outhouse, mainly because Mom refused to have a "honey jar" in the house. Later we became immune to the bee stings and they didn’t even swell up. When the bees swarmed we would beat on pots and pans until the swarm settled on a tree limb. I would climb the tree and rope off the swarm to a higher limb and then cut off the limb the swarm was on and let it down to Dad. Dad’s left arm was crippled and he couldn’t climb trees. I was sent out to sell honey in the neighborhood. We got 35 cents for an 8oz. jar. Mom and Dad got 25 cents and I got a dime, only I didn’t get to keep it. It went in a jar for a piano. When I had $15.00 Grandma Burdett gave us $10.00 and we got a piano. When I was about 6 a lady started giving piano lessons at the Baptist church. We would get off at the bus stop at Rome Avenue and walk over to the church. The lessons cost a dime. When I got home I taught Janet what I had learned that day, including school. Later Mom started sending us to a lady just off Himes Avenue near Egypt Lake for our music lessons. We would have to get off the school bus at a much earlier stop. The lady always gave us cookies and chocolate milk when we first got there. After our music lessons Mom would come get us. Mom was the neighborhood "medicine woman". Everyone came to our house for advice and to use the telephone. Mom was an excellent cook and made some of the most delicious pies I have ever tasted. Mom taught us to cook and sew. She would show us the basics and then turn us loose on our own. Her standard answer when we wanted to know something was, "Go look it up." Love, Corky MY MOTHER BY Janet Greene Mack Mildred Regina Burdett Greene was born April 1, 1908, in Marion, Ohio, the fifth child of William and Nellie (Bryant) Burdett. Since she was born on April Fool's Day everyone tried to "April Fool" her, but never could. Once, after she was married and living in Florida, one of her sisters said, "Guess what! Bud (their younger brother) is here from Ohio!" Mom exclaimed, "He is?" "April fool," was the triumphant reply. But, before the day was over Bud drove in from Ohio. During the Depression Dad (Harry Greene) lost his job, so Mom and Dad started Harry's Cleaners. They had to learn how to clean clothes, and learn they did, she doing the women's clothes, and Dad cleaning the men's clothes. All five of us children worked in the cleaners cleaning clothes, waiting on customers, dusting products, much to our displeasure. Dad's mother, Nanny, lived with us, and she and Mom did alterations putting zippers and new pockets in men's pants. They also made all of our clothes - even our underwear, pants and pantywaists out of unbleached muslin. In the summer we all wore a one piece swimsuit they invented, and in the winter we wore striped overalls. Mom played the piano although she never had lessons. So when I wanted to take piano lessons she saw to it that I had them. Mom had epilepsy, and unfortunately was mentally ill in the last half of her life, so she went from a very active person to doing nothing. From an intelligent person to only being able to converse on a simple level. Before that she had taught us to sew, cook, clean and had a love and respect of God and the Bible. |