Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Hello! Introducing the Plumbs

My name is Savannah Plumb, and my family is "Just Plumb Nuts!"
I know I sound like I'm at an AA meeting or something, but I gotta tell ya, it's pretty hard being the only sane person in your entire family. And when practically the entire town is your family, that's saying something.



This man is my paternal grandfather, Nigel Joseph Plumb. Seems like a nice enough guy eh? Well, to hear my Aunt Margaret (more on her later) tell it, he came over from England at the tail end of the Great War and settled down into a nice comfy farm up in Riverview.

Here he is as a (younger) man with Aunt Margaret's mom, Carolyn Finney Plumb. She and grandpa split up way before I was born and way before my dad was born, too. After he split up with her, he packed up everything (including Aunt Margaret, who was a teenager at the time) and headed south and east, to Sunset Valley.


This is my Aunt Margaret when she was my age and about the time she moved here with my grandpa. Even then, she was writing books. She got her first novel published a few simdays after she arrived in Sunset Valley.
Here's where it gets real interesting. Shortly after my grandpa arrived in Sunset Valley, he met this woman.




Her name was Jamie Jolina. I've heard she was of French descent. He met her while they were both working at the local hospital. She was a surgeon, he cleaned bedpans when he wasn't at his farm. Who was she? She was my grandmother. To hear my dad tell it, she might as well have been superwoman.
At any rate, I don't have the whole story. But from the bits and pieces I've been able to glean from Aunt Margaret and other sources, my grandparents hooked up, and my grandmother was shocked to find out she was pregnant. My grandpa asked her to move in, and my grandma, who pretty much was used to living her own life and lifestyle, turned him down.

The day before Valentine's Day, my grandma delivered my dad. On Valentine's Day, grandpa showed up to my grandma's house with a bag of diapers in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. Grandma had named him "Jamar Jolina," but grandpa didn't really like it. So he asked her for a list of alternatives, and they all went to City Hall and changed his name to Nathan. So the name on his birth certificate read Nathan James Jolina-Plumb.

I've been told I look a little like my grandmother. I wish! She was gorgeous, lol.


Speaking of my grandma, she was a 'party animal.' What I mean by that is, she was very outgoing and loved to laugh and have fun. She surrounded herself with a lot of people. Aunt Margaret says she used to spend her evenings in deep discussions about a lot of creative topics like art and music and books. What I would have given to be a fly on the wall at those gatherings!


Grandpa lived a much slower life. He spent most of his time with plants rather than people. Aunt Margaret pretty much kept to herself, in the company of her books, so he was pretty much free to tend to his vast orchard. After he left his job at the hospital he devoted himself full time to the orchard.

1 comment:

  1. Just started reading the first chapter. I like it

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