Nancy H. Vest, Writer

Sharing Stories and Wisdom from Generation to Generation

  • Home
  • About Nancy
  • Growing Up Years Journal
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Marking Your Milestones

in Charles Heiser Family

A lucky escape

Share

This week’s topic for 52 Ancestors/52 Weeks is: Lucky. Here is my response.

As many of you already know from reading my blog, my father, Charles L. HEISER (1913-2001) was raised by his maternal grandparents, Montgomery PRICE (1859-1947) and Sallie PYLES PRICE (1862-1940).

B&W photo of an elderly couple with an open back door behind them. Man is hunched over and holding a cane, wearing a pale long -sleeved shirt and dark pants with suspenders and dark shoes. He has dark hair. Woman has grey hair, wears glasses, wearing a light colored blouse and mid-calf skirt and dark shoes.

My great-grandparents, Montgomery Price and Sallie Pyles Price, at the back of their row house in Frederick, Maryland.

Neither of my dad’s grandparents lived long enough for me to meet them, but my dad told a few stories about them. Here’s one of them.

My dad and his grandparents lived in a tiny row house in Frederick, Maryland. The house had only one bedroom upstairs. My dad slept in the bed with his grandmother until he left home. His grandfather, Montgomery, always slept downstairs on the couch. He would never sleep upstairs, anywhere.

Color photo of a the two end units of a row of brick row houses next to a narrow alley. The house is narrow. It has a single door and window on the lower level, and two windows on the upper one.

My dad grew up in the brick row house next to the alley in this photo.

Why not upstairs?

When Montgomery was a boy he was asleep upstairs in a house that caught fire. It was a terrifying experience for him. Montgomery told my dad that he was lucky to have made it out of the house alive. Montgomery wasn’t taking any chances of that happening to him again by sleeping upstairs…ever.

The fire probably happened in Montgomery County, Maryland, since that’s where Montgomery was raised. I couldn’t find any newspapers clippings about a fire happening in that area during Montgomery’s boyhood years, but that’s likely because the clippings are lost. A fire like that would probably be noted in the newspaper.

Copyright ©  2018 Nancy H. Vest   All Rights Reserved

 

Share
Click here to subscribe to my nearly weekly newsletter and receive a free e-book, Write Your First Life Story Today
« An heirloom from the mountains
Misfortune: Sallie Thomas Grant »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to my nearly weekly newsletter via email and receive a free e-book, Write Your First Life Story Today.

Most Used Tags

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Baltimore Carroll County Chesterfield County Christmas Civil War Columbia Cotton mill farmer Farming Fort Jackson Frederick Frederick County Ft. Jackson grandparents Keeping Grandma Alive Keepsakes Kershaw County Lexington County Marlboro County Maryland Monocacy Cemetery Montgomery County North Carolina Pennsylvania Photos Richland County South Carolina Surname: Burroughs Surname: Davis Surname: Futrell Surname: Grant Surname: Griffin Surname: Heiser Surname: Hillard Surname: Jeffords Surname: Lee Surname: Martin Surname: Price Surname: Pyles Surname: Terry Surname: Thomas Virginia World War 1 World War 2

Archives

Categories

GeneaBloggers

Share:

Share

Copyright © 2023 · Market theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2023 · Created and maintained by Bakerview Consulting