Robert and Gertie Holt of Wise County, Texas had 11 children.  My name is Jan Cobb Angelley, one of their great-granddaughters. I was born in Bridgeport, Wise County, Texas. If you are a lifelong resident of Wise County, we just might be related. Some of my best memories are of holidays spent at the Holt farm, where aunts, uncles and best of all, cousins, converged. There was a leaning barn; forbidding that pack o’ kids anything, was throwing down a dare. Besides, the adults were busy playing 42 or talking, no one was watching. I remember a cautionary tale about the size of rattle snakes slithering in the deep ditch. Yup, we played there too, making so much noise, no self-respecting snake could tolerate us. Best of all, there was wide-open space, and dirt roads to roam. Firecrackers expected.

I have one vague memory of my great grandmother Ida Fisher Easley, and that was walking across the road from grandma Holt’s house, with my mother, to visit her widowed grandmother. Grandma Easley didn’t like children being in her house, so we sat, dangling our legs off the edge of her porch. That’s kind of a sad memory, but that’s the only one I have. My great grandfather, Charles Easley, had 3 wives, only the last one, Ida, outlived him. Altogether, there were 21 children in that family. Easley/Cox/Fisher; my grandfather’s siblings, whether half brothers and sisters or step brothers and sisters, they were always family.

When I was two years old, my father got a job at Reese Air Force Base near Lubbock, Texas. So, I grew up in West Texas, but felt tied to Wise County my whole life. My mother, was a great story teller and many of the stories I post on my blog were told by her. I admit to embellishing, simply because she’s not here to give me details. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved growing up in Lubbock, and I’ll always be a West Texas girl . . . but inside, embedded where my soul resides, I am a Wise Issue.