We have an assignment to write about our memories of elementary school for our Cochran Family Blog so I dug up this post which it turns out I wrote, but never published.  I had my mother send some elementary school pictures to go with them.  For some reason, I thought that would be a nice [...]

Posted on April 24th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I think my favorite treat as a child was homemade fruit leather.  Both my mom and my Grandma O’Bryant made it.  I remember them making it in strawberry and in raspberry.  I loved the flavor and the texture of it and I never thought I got enough of it.

Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Kathleen
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There were eight people (6 kids, 2 adults) in my family growing up, but most vans only had seat belts for 7 so space was always an issue.  A car top carrier seemed like the perfect solution for baggage and it worked ok for us for a little while.  The straps would make this [...]

Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I started writing my personal history on this blog, I’m far from finished, but I can’t seem to find the time to sit and write for an hour so perhaps I’ll write a few memories here  and there and later compose them into my history.
My family didn’t take a lot of family vacations that [...]

Posted on February 24th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I’ve wanted to go see my grandmother’s house since moving to Knoxville a few months ago, but I didn’t want to go alone so I waited until my sister Krista could come with me.
This is what the house used to look like and except for the fact that there were a lot more trees [...]

Posted on January 29th, 2010 by Kathleen
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There are some things that instantly remind me of a time or a place or a person.  Today I was at the store and saw a box of ‘Danish Style Butter Cookies’ on sale and it instantly reminded me of my grandma O’Bryant.  During Christmas time, she always had a tin full of these [...]

Posted on June 20th, 2009 by Kathleen
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I have no pictures for most of the next few rooms, unfortunately.  Grandma’s bedroom was at the end of the hall. I remember thinking that she had the softest bed in the world. Her blankets were a light turquoise and she had a headboard with shelves. She probably had books up there, but I only [...]

Posted on June 8th, 2009 by Kathleen
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**I could only find pictures of one of the rooms that I describe here, so I scattered pictures of that room throughout the descriptions of the others**
Through the kitchen was the opening to the hallway. I loved grandma’s hall. She kept giant bullion boards filled with pictures. She had an assortment of pictures old [...]

Posted on April 26th, 2009 by Kathleen
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The door that we used most to go in and out of Grandma’s house was probably the back sliding door. As you walked in the door you were instantly surrounded by the dark wood paneling that covered the walls. There was a stone wall to the left with a fireplace and a stone ledge [...]

Posted on April 24th, 2009 by Kathleen
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We usually visited my Grandparents in TN twice a year, at Christmas time and once in the summer. They lived on Yarnell road just off of Campbell Station road. I remember Campbell Station as a treacherous windy road with a cliff to one side and a forested hill on the other. The road was slightly [...]

Posted on March 31st, 2009 by Kathleen
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Living out in the country meant that there were few kids our age around, so when we were young our only playmates were our siblings and the great outdoors.  I remember playing with my younger brother, Lee when we were little. I can remember building block structures and playing with little action figures. There was [...]

Posted on March 29th, 2009 by Kathleen
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I had Mrs. Moyer for third grade and then again for third/fourth split.    She was my favorite teacher and I think I may have been her favorite student. At one point I got a C on my report card and I think she didn’t want me to feel bad about it because she gave me [...]

Posted on March 11th, 2009 by Kathleen
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I went to Clinton Elementary school from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Of all the elementary schools in our school district, I thought Clinton was the most attractive. It was located in the middle of the country with big white columns in the front. I have a very imperfect memory of things so I’ll do my [...]

Posted on February 15th, 2009 by Kathleen
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  Barbara Elisabeth Orman Bird was my grandmother’s name.  When mom had her first child, Grandma suggested she name her Barbara.  Mom was not thrilled about the idea because the name sounded like an old woman name to her, but mom thought that grandma would be unhappy if she didn’t take her suggestion and so [...]

Posted on January 23rd, 2009 by Kathleen
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**I should start with a disclaimer.  I know that Grandma’s office was on Lincoln Ave. in Bellevue.  I browsed Google Earth and the pictures I’ve included look somewhat like the places I remembered.  Although my grandmother’s house looks the same that it did 20 years ago, downtown has changed some.  I do remember seeing a [...]

Posted on January 21st, 2009 by Kathleen
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We loved to play outside at Grandma’s house. In front of her house just under the windows was a flowering tree that had these leaves that would turn brown and curl up in the fall. We used to pretend they were tacos and fill them with dirt (beef). Grandma also had these plants in [...]

Posted on January 19th, 2009 by Kathleen
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We visited my Grandma Bird in Pennsylvania whenever we could.  We always called her Pittsburgh Grandma, although she lived just outside of Pittsburgh in Bellevue.  I thought the drive took about 5 hours, but Google maps thinks we could get there in 3 1/2.  We took toll roads most of the way.  This meant [...]

Posted on January 19th, 2009 by Kathleen
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Barbara liked to teach me things. My dad says she potty trained me, but I should probably ask my mom to confirm that story. I do remember the time she brought me into her bedroom where she had gently laid a pair of underwear on her bed. She told me that she thought she had [...]

Posted on January 16th, 2009 by Kathleen
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When I was very little I shared a room with my older sister Barbara. We used to share a double bed. I remember we’d have this imaginary line down the middle of the bed delineating my side from hers. We had this rule that any part of your body that crossed the line was [...]

Posted on January 15th, 2009 by Kathleen
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The point of this blog is mostly to post the pictures I didn’t have when I initially blogged about my childhood home.
When my parents bought our house it was the mustard color you can see in the picture below:
My parents painted the house “Shadow Grey” and added black shutters which I always thought improved the [...]

Posted on January 14th, 2009 by Kathleen
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