08 October 2020

Dear Ol' Nanny

Nanny.  What does that nickname conjure up for you?  For me it’s my paternal grandmother, Josephine Melinda Bodle. 

Nanny lived with my family for as long as I can remember.  In my younger days, she was a “snowbird”, meaning that she would spend most of the summers in Pennsylvania and winter with us in Florida.  I remember walking with her through the airport for her to fly “back home” as she called it.

She was a native of Pennsylvania, born 27 March 1885 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  She married Herbert J. Campbell (no idea what the middle initial stands for, but probably James, his father’s name) on 20 Jan 1909 in a United Methodist Church in Williamsport.  Herbert died 5 February 1919 from complications of the global flu pandemic.  They had one child, my father, Donald Sherwood.  Nanny never remarried.  


UMC marriage book with Herbert & Josephine featured.
The marriage book with Herbert & Josephine featured.

Nanny was a most excellent cook.  She had her own restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania during the great depression of the 1930’s.  She also told me she ran a boarding house, and in the 1940 census she is listed with two boarders and says she owns a restaurant.  She also told me that she was the first cook hired by Penn State University.  I do have a letter from the school where she was hired to be the lead cook for an engineering project, but the kind folks at PSU couldn’t determine if she was the “first” cook to be hired as this was for a project and not the school itself.


Nanny's BBQ in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Nanny's BBQ in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

She also ran a kitchen, “The Friend’s Union”, in State College, Pennsylvania.  This was a Quaker run facility I’ve been told.  I have many pictures of the house that served as the meeting place.  I love the hand written note on back of the second one, “This is where the cookies come from”. 


Two photos of the Friend's Union, State College, PA.
Two photos of the Friend's Union.

But that’s just background on Nanny.  I have one particular story of many to tell you.  It involves Nanny, my parents, and me.  The year would be about 1970 or so.  I do remember that I was not yet in high school, so still considered (to my mother especially) as a kid. 

The house I grew up in was a small 3 bedroom, probably no more than 1100 square feet.  My parents had the master bedroom, Nanny had the small bedroom up front and I had the room in between, both in location and size.  The doorway into this room was odd shaped.  Once you had came in the room you had to make an immediate left then a right to get to the main area.  Not really a hallway nor a foyer, just odd walls due to the closets in the rooms on either side.  This did allow the placement of an extra dresser on one of the walls.

I didn’t use that dresser at all.  Mom would put extra linens and other stuff in the drawers, except for the top drawer.  I don’t why she didn’t use the top drawer, but Nanny used that drawer.  Maybe they had some kind of agreement.

And what did Nanny put in that drawer?  There were several keepsake types of items, such as this huge scrapbook.  She had taken an old wallpaper sample book and glued pictures, cards, and even leaves in over the samples.  I still have that book and I’m trying to somehow salvage the pictures.  Most times I just have to cut the entire picture, with the backing out.  There are several pictures that are back to back in the book, so I can’t just cut one out as that would destroy the picture on the other side.  I haven’t cut out all that many pictures yet.

But that’s not the interesting thing she put that top drawer.  It seems that she would take my father’s old Playboy magazines and put them in that drawer.  Now dad didn’t have a subscription to Playboy, and as far I could tell back then, he didn’t buy every issue.  It just may be possible that he was interested in the articles (as well as the visual aspect).  My first purchase of Playboy was specifically for the interview with the then presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.  I was not old enough to vote for Mr. Carter, my 18th birthday was three weeks after the 1976 election.  But I was very interested in what he had to say.  Along with those visual aspects of the magazine as well.  But back when this story took place, I honestly borrowed my dad’s magazines for the cartoons.  I may not have understood all of the cartoons, but I still enjoyed them.

Nanny was a very strong Christian woman.  Why she was taking the Playboys and putting them in this drawer is beyond me.  I would have thought she would have just thrown them out.  But she made sure that I knew what she was doing when she put the first one in there.  I was in the room playing some music, an old 45 RPM most likely, when she brought that first magazine in.  She had an odd smile on her face as she watched me watching her.  Nothing was said, just a smile.  Naturally, I immediately checked it out.  I could leave the magazine in the drawer to “read” it.  

Nanny's membership card.  It's dated 17 September 1940.  This should be in Altoona, PA
Nanny's membership card.  It's dated 17 September 1940.  This should be in Altoona, PA.

It was about six months later that my mom found them.  First, she accused dad of hiding them there.  Of course, he could honestly deny that.  In fact, I don’t think he knew where the magazines were going.  He may have thought that either mom or Nanny had thrown them away.  I used to refer to my mom as 20th century Puritanism at it's finest.  That was until I found some rather racy pictures of her.  Anyway, next on my mom’s hit list was me.  Surprisingly, I wasn't at the top of the list this time.  How she thought I could have grabbed the mags and hid them away I’ll never understand. 

But while she was yelling at me about it.  Over and over asking me if I had put them there, Nanny walked up and said she that she put them there.  Mom, of course, didn’t believe her, and continued to blame me.  In the end mom threw the magazines out and I was grounded.  That didn’t bother me all that much.  I only had two friends anyway.

Nanny later told me she was sorry that she got me into trouble.  She also put some Life magazines in that drawer and turned down any pages that had anything my mom would have disapproved of.  My older brother didn't get along with Nanny as well as I did.  But it was thigs like this that has endeared her memory to me.

Peace,
B

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