The Red Flannel Rag

the story that happened when Grandpa John and Grandma Mary lived at Twin

Mountain, West Virginia. My mother was a tiny baby when Grandma Ellie left Hopkins

Gap on a trip to visit her daughter and the new baby. While Ellie was there she got into

a fight with Grandma Mary and was asked to leave. Ellie walked out of the yard and

looked back to say to Grandma Mary, "You will be sorry for what you did old girl." As

soon as she was out of sight, my tiny baby mother-to-be started crying. She cried for

several days until Grandma Mary called on a West Virginia Granny Woman to remove

the spell Ellie had placed on the baby to make her cry.

It was said that Ellie could turn herself into a cat and come through the eaves of

the house or reduce her size and come through the keyhole in the door. According to

Aunt Goldie, “She made mom [Grandma Mary] sick and gave the babies colic so they

cried all the time. Mom hated her own mother.”

Grandpa Austin and Grandma Molly Shifflett

My daddy’s parents, Grandma Molly and Grandpa Austin lived for some time

after I was born. Grandpa died in 1958 when I was seventeen and Grandma died in 1971

when I was thirty years old. They were no slouches when it came to having children.

They had ten children and raised all ten to adulthood. Even my Aunt Lena, who had

three living children and had never married, lived with them. They helped raise her

children.

Three of their children were born deaf and mute. Mom told me many times,

“Austin and Molly were half brother and sister because of Banks Shifflett’s runnin’

around. No wonder they have three kids who can’t hear and talk.” She added, “I

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