Wallace and Thelma

 

My mother’s brother Wallace Charles Petty (1910-2007)  and his wife Thelma Jeannette Cox (1904-1994).  They were married in Whitfield County, Georgia, 10 July 1939).

When Wallace was a kid his family moved to Gillette, Wyoming, where my mother was born.  After a couple of years they decided they could not make a go of homesteading and moved back east.  Their mother, Viola, carried the young kids and the father, William Elijah Joseph Petty carried their belongings and the two oldest sons, Tom and Wallace back via horse and wagon.  Talk About Quality Time!

They had four daughters.

Wallace and Thelma were both educators but took on other enterprises like raising cattle and having an egg producing operation.

Because of Wallace’s education positions the family moved to Augusta and Milledgeville, Georgia.

I remember Wallace being a quiet and sincere man. 

Once I remember he was on a work-related trip to Atlanta and dropped by for a visit.  At that time, I recently acquired about 6 or 8 jars with picked snake heads.  Then, when carnivals left town, the Sunday morning afterwards we would go to the fairgrounds and look for change  and things dropped from rides.  There I found the snake heads jars  in a box.  In each jar was a huge snake head with its mouth pried open showing the fangs.  Mama told Wallace about them and he wanted to see them.   We carried him out to the  little shed to show him.  Mama would not let them in the house.  Mama told Wallace she was going to make me throw them away..  Wallace looked at each one and could identify some of the snake heads and pointed out things about each one.  He recommended that we not throw them away and donate them to a school for the students to study.  She never said yes or no.

As soon as Wallace drove out of the driveway, she had me throw them away.