Saturday, April 24, 2010

Anne Coleman Patton, By Dawn Coleman Walker




Happy Birthday, Annie!

Anne Coleman Patton
Daughter of Phyllis Born 23 April 1954

Anne (Annie) was the sweetest, most gentle child. When she was little, she was favored by all of us girls. Always living in Upstate New York, she was our Wendell's favorite too. She could do no wrong, in our eyes. She also has a sense of humor we all know and love, and mannerisms that are very much like our mother's. Her laughter and the things she does to have others laugh is so prevalent.

When quite young, while in mass at Saint Patrick's Church one Sunday, we did not have our envelopes. As the basket was being passed, we were to put our quarters in. Annie put her quarter in but kept her hand in there, searching for change. She said she wanted to get back at least a dime. At that very moment, Helen was pinching her arm telling her no and Monsignor Curtain was coming down the left aisle of the church. He saw everything and scolded Helen. He also thought little Annie was so precious.

After we all matured and were such wonderful married women with children, we went to Friendly's Ice Cream for a girls day out, (sometime in the summer of the 80s). Annie went to the rest room. As she made her entrance back to the eating area, at least 3 to 5 feet of toilet tissue was draped behind her like a lovely veil, but attached to her waistband. Everyone in the entire ice cream parlor burst out laughing.

We will, I'm sure have many more wonderful moments to share in the future about her.
Picture One: Annie and Bernie on his birthday, 2006
Picture Two: Annie's favorite picture!

2 comments:

Pat said...

Annie,

Happy Birthday, one day late.

I should have gotten this up on the BIG DAY, April 23rd.

I hope that your birthday was a great one, and that there are many more!!

DAWN--great work writing this up and sending pictures along with it. THANK YOU!

Sue Kinsella said...

Happy Birthday, Annie!

When I was a kid - a few years ago - we always stayed with Adin when we visited Center Lisle. I had no idea where any of the places we visited were in relationship to each other. Aunt Lil's store was "far away," the farm was in another part of the county as far as I could tell (even though this summer at the family reunion I was shocked to realize that it really was only spitting distance from Adin's - well, if you're a good spitter), and I wasn't quite sure how the farm house fit into the family, except that I knew that Grandma Kate Baker had lived there at an earlier time.

Did the Woods family live at the farm then? (I'm talking about when I was 7-9 years old.) At some point, it was described as Wendell's, but Joyce wouldn't have been in the picture yet because she's the same age as me. Well, such is the confusion of little kids who just go where their parents take them and don't know quite how things fit together.

No matter, my indelible memories of going to the farm house (meaning what became Wendell's) all revolve around walking in the front door and getting shooed upstairs, where I'd jump into a big double bed with crisp white sheets, along with Kathryn, Dawn, Helen, Annie and Rhoda. Our moms would be gabbing late into the night downstairs, and we'd be giggling, gabbing and telling stories late into the night upstairs.

I think we were supposed to go to sleep, and maybe some did. But I've always been a night owl so I'm sure I was still bright-eyed even in the middle of the night. I was about as certain of how we all were related as I was about where in heaven's name I was. But I loved seeing them and always looked forward to jumping into bed together to jabber about whatever it was we gabbed about, none of which I remember.

It was great to see at least some of my Center Lisle cousins again this summer. I could still see us as little kids, even if our own kids couldn't imagine that!