This is what she said when you were about 3:

1 - Pop lived with the Morrill family in Michigan - Frank Morrill, Pop's dad, was an appraiser of timber.  Pop was born to a couple that later married-owned a dept. store, well-to-do.  The couple came to get Pop when he was 12 or 14 but he did not want to go.  He was helping his Morrill dad in a saw mill.  He had a step-sister (Cora) - low income family.  Played lots of dominoes.  Nana's father born in Portland, Maine.  Nana had twin brothers - Clinton, a con man and one she could not remember the name.  Pop went from Newaygo to Grand Rapids.  He did not graduate from high school.  He worked for Bixby's (office supply) and was manager - in Grand Rapids.

2- Helen (Boti) said she was 16 when she first saw Jim.  She said he was thin and coughed all the time when she was living on Spruce St.  In 1929 Jim took Helen to the movies as courtesy to Helen's parents.  Helen's dad, Paw-Paw, worked for Firestone in the re-cap shop.  Jim got transferred to Raleigh from Winston and came on weekends to visit Helen.  Boti said she and Jim married in the National Cathedral (May 1,1933?), Washington, D. C.  No family members were able to attend.  MawMaw was menopausal and a very nervous person.  Jim had a friend, an Episcopal minister in Raleigh, ZeBarney Phillips, who married them.  They rode in a brand new Ford coupe to Washington, D. C.  Boti did not know the two witnesses.  She walked down the aisle in a blue silk taffeta short dress with white embroidery around the neck and wore a hat of the same color.  Nana and Pop were living in South Bend.  Helen and Jim lived in Raleigh after the marriage with Mr. and Mrs. Williams on highway 1.  Tommy, their son, was in high school.  Soon got a little apt. in Raleigh, but soon thereafter, Jim was transferred to Wilmington (June 1933) where Jim was store mgr. for Firestone. Lived at Kure Beach, N. C., by the ocean - near Wilmington.  (Daddy says this is the only place he thinks his mother was ever happy.)  Jim Durham got them the cottage from a Davis family who would only spend the summers there.  When the Davis came in the summer they rented an apt. in a house near National Cemetery in Wilmington.  (Daddy put a picture of this house on danandmary.com - on front page see Morrill family story.)  Nana and Pop liked to visit.  Pop was working for Gun Metal Furn. which he closed - moved to Wilmington and worked for a plumbing company.  PawPaw, Boti's dad, told Pop, Jim's Dad, that jobs were better in Winston-Salem, so Nana and Pop moved there before Jim and Boti moved back to Winston.  Nana and Pop moved next door to MawMaw and PawPaw.  Pop worked for Rally Aberson (sp.?)  The house was where Walker's Florist located.  Jim was transferred to Charlotte from Wilmington summer 1936.  Jimmie had been born in 1934 and Dan was born Oct. 1937.  They moved to E. Blvd.  Helen said she was miserable in Charlotte and did not like the life style.  Jim gone all the time.  He was assistant district manager for Firestone.  Jim was more interested in his career - he drank and partied with men.  She was ready to call the marriage quits and went to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Fred Walters.  The Walters said to Helen "Are you going to the Firestone company party at the river?  Fred and I are going.  Why don't you and Jimmy ride with us on Sat. - the day of the party?"  Boti said she rode with the Walters to the party and knew she was not wanted there by Jim when she arrived.  She was pregnant.  Helen left the party.  She said she had no place in Jim's life in Charlotte and if they had not moved back to Winston the marriage would have been over.  (Dad says a job with Firestone came open and Boti told Jim if he did not that job the marriage was ending.)  In Winston Boti ordered furniture from Morris Earley for their rental place. 

3-  Jimmie was always a worried little boy.  He was good but not happy.  After he was born Helen said she always ran fever off and on and did not feel good. She was sick all the time and felt terrible the whole pregnancy with Dan.  Jim did not care whether they had children or what sex the children were.    Jim only thought about his job - his work. Dan was born at Mercy which Boti liked very much - they were good to her there.

4-  PawPaw's family was upper middle class - higher economic social class than MawMaw's.  Granpa Nowell was an alcoholic and chose the bottle over family.  He was a butcher in Raleigh.  PawPaw had to work to help support the family.  He played baseball for N. C. State.  PawPaw could work with all kinds of metals.  He was a skilled laborer and worked for Briggs Shaffner.

5- Aunt Maud and Elise paid Boti a lot of attention when she was young.  Grandma Nowell lived in Greensboro and is buried on Battleground Cemetery.  She was either Methodist or Presbyterian - Boti did not know for sure.

6-Boti said the lot for 2458 Maplewood cost $1100 and the house cost $5900 to build.  They moved in right after Christmas.  The plan came from a couple in Greensboro - she liked their house.

     This is fragmented - I was 28 or 29 when I wrote all this down.