Grandma Merck

My Mom’s parents lived in Birmingham, Alabama. They were not wealthy folks. My Mom’s brother, Uncle Wendell, used to joke that they were so poor they couldn’t afford to pay attention. My Grandfather, Carlton Woodward Merck or Papa Merck to us, was a musician. He was the conductor of the Birmingham Fire Department Band. When the Great Depression hit and municipal budgets were slashed (I’ve always assumed) the Fire Department Band was among the first items to go. He never recovered financially or emotionally.

They lived in a little three bed room house on Division Avenue in the East Lake area of Birmingham. My parents made the monthly payments. Social Security was probably Papa Merck’s main source of income. The story goes that my parents and my Mom’s siblings pulled together a couple of hundred dollars and bought Papa Merck’s way into Social Security when it first started which then supported him for the rest of his life; he lived to be 93.

My Grandmother, Mamie Jackson Cook, was a well read, kind, loving women. I only remember her as sedentary; I think she had a heart condition and was more or less home bound by the time I came along. We visited, drove from Virginia on State Roads before there was an Interstate Highway system in a non-air-conditioned car, every summer.

At least twice I stayed alone with my Grandparents: once when I was very young and once when I was in Elementary School. The picture above is possibly from that first solo visit. It was taken in 1955 when I was one and some change. Also in the picture is their beloved dog Rusty looking up at Mamie admiringly while something stage left has Grandma’s and my attention.

This is my Dad, Samuel John Ailor at his brand new home in the Riverdale development in Hampton, Virginia. Dad was from Johnson City, Tennessee. There are a lot of Ailors in Eastern Tennesse, especially around Knoxville.