My mother (Nannie McBride Woods, younger brother (Mike) and I lived with “Uncle Pete” while my father (Thomas Earl Woods) was in the Navy. Uncle Pete (Peter Hennis) was actually my Grandmother’s brother which made him my mother’s uncle. My grandmother (Kettie Lou Hennis) passed away when my mother was about 16 years old so I never had a chance to meet my grandmother Hennis. Mom lived with Uncle Pete and his wife (Sudie White Hennis) from that time and until she married my father.

My grandmother, Kettie Lou Hennis, married Robert Franklin McBride. They had 4 children of which my mother was the oldest.

Mother was 19 years old and Dad was 21 when I was born. Dad’s parents lived in Rockingham County, near the town of Madison and within a few hundred yards of the Stokes county line. Behind Grandpa Woods’ home was a very old 2 story log cabin. I have no idea of how old the cabin was, but I do know that Grandpa Woods raised part of his family there.

Believe it or not, I was actually born in that old log house. The doctor came to the house to tend to my mother and deliver her baby….which was me. My first cousin Ronnie Woods told me that he was born in that house also.

I do not know how long that we lived in the log house. Can the human mind retain memories from this age? There are visions in my mind of seeing the steps that accessed the second level. My memory is of wanting to climb the steps and mother did not allow me to do that. Also I have a memory of wanting to climb out the front door and being denied that challenge. My guess is that these two memories were from the age of 15 to 18 months. Nothing else about this house sticks in my mind.

Beginning Days Buck Woods

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