Jame Craig met Lena Hall when his older sister married her older brother. They....the brother and sister settled in Altavista, Virginia and later James, after a stint in the U.S. Navy, moved to Lynchburg and got a job in the mill there. I don't know if it was an immediate attraction, but James knew he wanted to go out with little Lena, who was not quite 15 at the time. That was a problem quickly solved by her mama (Banny Hall). The solution......Effie, Lena's older and now divorced sister, could go out with them and sit between them in the old Model T Ford James had. Seems like every time James came to see Lena, Effie was always there, too. But Effie was "in love" with James and didn't mind being the chaperone. However, James had eyes only for Lena from the time they met until he died in November of 1979. They were married on December 24, 1926 with the blessing of her mother---don't know about the blessing of Effie. They settled down in Altavista and on a warm spring day.....May 7, 1930, a beautiful baby girl was born. Delivered by "old" Dr. Bowen and born at home surrounded by family--the baby was named Iva Geraldine and was then and forever, the apple of her mama's eye. When Mama and Daddy moved to Danville in the fall of 1930, several sisters and brothers moved with them and got jobs with Dan River Mills.For a while they all lived together in the house where Shirley lives now. Later Effie moved her family to the house at the end of the street and Mama and Daddy moved to 207 Pickett St, where they lived until Mama died in 1984. When Geraldine was a little girl, her best friend and constant playmate was Lois, Effie's youngest daughter who was almost exactly two years older. They used to play a game in which they tied strings around each other's noses--to lead each other around, I assume. Lois had a litle button nose like G'ma Lena and Geraldine had the type you could get a better grip on. Lois said that once she tied the string so tight on Gerry's nose that it turned deep blue before she could get it off. After a "talking" to by Banny Hall, they didn't play that game any more. Geraldine started to school in September of 1936. She really didn't like it at all. Mama said she would start with bribing her to go, then threats and finally when they were both in tears, the older cousins would finally get her to school. Of course, at lunch time, Gerry would be "sick" and Lois and Marie would bring her home and leave her. I understand this went on all through the first grade. IT JUST DAWNED ON ME.....I was born in August just two weeks before school started. No wonder she didn't want to go off and leave HER MAMA with a new baby girl!

Geraldine....another part

Even in grade school Geraldine had a good singing voice. I remember when she was in an operetta, I think in sixth grade. Mama made her costume-- a flower costume-- out of crepe paper. It was the palest yellow with a cap made out of green which was supposed to be the flower stem. I thought she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen and I REALLY wanted that costume. But if I remember correctly, she and her friend Cletus made me and Cletus's sister Betty Jean miserable that whole summer with that costume. They took turns wearing it, but never let us wear it. Geraldine had her "bad" moments, too. For instance, once she put a pillow case over my head when I was out riding my tricycle on the front sidewalk.Then she gave me a big shove and off I went down the street and into the railings at the end of the street where the steps to the mill gate were. Luckily, the trike had a big front wheel which kept my head and body parts from being splattered all over the sidewalk. Once, in retaliation for me pushing out her Shirley Temple doll's little bottom teeth,(after all, I had just lost mine) she and her girlfriend( the infamous Cletus) amputated all my and Betty Jean's paper dolls at the knees. And these weren't just any paper dolls...they were the beautiful tall model dolls with mamy, many outfits which we had painstakingly cut out. I don't guess that quite made up for the teeth pulling, but it really ruined our day!

The Rules

Daddy and Mama always had rules for us to live by. For instance, stay in your own yard, ask permission to skate or play hiding off our property, and the main one....DON'T GO TO THE CREEK! Once the little boy who lived across the street gave Gerry a little fish he'd caught. Our Grampa said to flush it down the toilet, but it was still alive,so she decided to take it to the creek to let it go. Now this creek was the same one where Old 97 wrecked and where we went with our mama and Aunt Frances when they had time to take us. Well, she let me go with her and when she leaned out to put the fish in the water, she slipped and fell onto a piece of glass and cut a deep gash in her elbow. She came up bleeding like a stuck hog and I went running home screaming at the top of my lungs. Daddy was at work and nobody at the house could drive his old car so mama had to call a cab to take her to get it sewed up. I think Mama was so scared she forgot to even fuss at us for disobeying. I remember when the mill company still owned the house and they came around every couple of years to paint. Gerry and Lois and Marie had just had their pictures made at a studio down town and Gerry's picture was still sitting on the mantle in the living room. This real old man who was painting(least at my young age I thought he was real old), kept on looking at the picture. Finally he told Mama,"that ar gal right thar ought to be a moving stair". It took a little while to figure out he meant movie star!

Geraldine and the boys

Geraldine always had plenty of boyfriends..( and she didn't have to chase anybody)! I remember her first one when she was about fourteen. Daddy would let her sit in the swing on the front porch in the day time only. His name was Gerald Perkins and he brought me a pair of skates he had out grown. They were the metal kind with toe clamps and a key. Of course, wouldn't nothing do, but I try to skate on the porch the whole time he was there. Next time he came, Gerry hid the skates. She had a very shy friend named Cletus and when she was "dating" Ray Evans, she prevailed on him to bring his cousin to date Cletus. Of course, Cletus hid in her Grandma's house and wouldn't come out so Gerry had to sit in the swing with two cute boys. Then, when she was about sixteen, there was Walter Graham who moved into the house two doors up from us. That year they were building the highway...58...and he had this old Chevy. He was trying to teach her to drive and some how she went over the bank right across from where the Old 97 marker is now. I think he jumped out before the car rolled, but she was thrown out close to the bottom. All she got was a knot on her head, but the car was totaled. Another time she was standing in the living room with her slip on and all this green stuff on her face--some kind of a beauty mask--when someone tapped on the door and walked on in. When she turned, I don't know who was the most shocked, her or our young preacher who had come to ask baby advice from Mama.