Aunt Vada and Uncle Robert

One of my favorite things to do as a child was to visit my Aunt Vada and Uncle Robert in Raymondville. Aunt Vada always had lots of cats and kittens and I have always loved cats. Most were outdoor stray cats that she fed (much like I've always done) but she usually had at least one indoor cat and sometimes kittens. She also had a wonderful swingset in her backyard and lots of fruit trees so there was always plenty of fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice. Aunt Vada also introduced me to alternative medicine, probably inadvertently, when we drove out to the country to a little shop that had the kinds of stuff you only find in health food stores now. I remember seeing a book there about treating cancer with grape seed extract and I wondered if this could help my mother who had ovarian cancer. I also loved spending time with my Uncle Robert. He was a bowler and would often take me bowling with him. He also got me interested in coin collecting. Every night he would come home with rolls of pennies from the bank and we would look through them for wheat pennies. I still to this day look for and collect wheat pennies. I can still picture him sitting in his recliner in the family room smoking his cigar or pipe. I love the smell of cigars and pipes because of him.

   Aunt Vada at age 63

                                                             Aunt Vada with Eileen
Robert Pitts

Cotton Farmer

A little known fact about me:
When I was 7 years old I was a successful cotton farmer. In the summer of 1960 while visiting my Aunt Vada and Uncle Robert in Raymondville, Texas, my uncle, who worked in a cotton gin, brought some cotton home to show me. I asked him if I could have the seeds to plant and even though all the adults told me I would never be able to grow cotton in my back yard in Houston, I persisted and grew the beautiful cotton plant seen in this picture.
My uncle also got me interested in coin collecting. Every night he would bring home a few rolls of pennies and we would look through them for wheat pennies. Back then they weren't so scarce so it wasn't unusual to find 3 or 4 in a roll of 50. I still to this day have a nice collection of pennies and always keep wheat pennies when I find one.