Aunt Berta

 My Mother's sister, Aunt Berta, was like a second mother to me. I started going to Asheville every summer after my cousin Jo was born, to visit for a couple of weeks. Later in years, my friend Pat would go with me.
 One of the first visits I had there happened to be during the time of my birthday. Aunt Berta surprised me with a beautiful homemade cake with silver sprinkles on top. Of course I cried. Me, the emotional girl.
 She always made the best homemade soup and would freeze it in quart milk cartons. She also, like my mother, was very frugal. She saved aluminum foil, washing it off letting it dry & folding it for re-use. She would save plastic food storage bags, washing them out and hanging them with a clothespin over the sink to dry. (I do the same to this day). She would stand at the kitchen sink, washing dishes or preparing food with her ankles crossed (I did the same and so does my youngest daughter). Funny the little traits that are carried down.
  Aunt Berta, like Mother, would lay down to rest in the afternoon with a bag of candy and a book. She loved to play solitaire and taught me many different varieties of the game. She would take me shopping for school clothes every time I'd go up for a visit. My granny lived with them then and granny loved to play Chinese checkers..and most times cheat at the game, giggling when she did.
 Most times Pat and I would travel by train, leaving late at night and arriving in Asheville in the morning. What fun that was, we'd stay up most of the night although trying to sleep. We always looked forward to the visit.
Always looked forward to our time with Jo, Uncle Day, Granny and Aunt Berta. It was my home away from home.
 They had a piano and record player downstairs in the den and I'd go down and bang away on the piano or put on some of their many 78 records and dance & sing my heart away. My cousin Jo can probably attest to that. We had a blast!! I knew most all the old songs by heart.

 I visited there every summer until I got married and afterward when we'd go for a couple of days, Harold and Granny would tease each other constantly. This was a wonderful, memorable time in my life.
 Above photos: Aunt Berta and Uncle Day in earlier years, and my cousin Jo today.