My Grandma Austill - Her Hearing Aid & Spinach!

Caroline "Carrie" Rettig-Price-Austill

Carrie Rettig-Price-Austill was my mother's (Marie Ruth Price-Cline) mother.  She was a quiet lady who wore a hearing aid most of the time.  When she had her hearing aid in her ear, she was soft spoken.  One Sunday after church, I went home with her for a few hours.  I played near her with childhood toys she kept in her closet for me.  All of a sudden, she said something to me so loudly it frightens me.  My parents said I got up and ran the three blocks home.  She did not have a telephone at the time, so she walked to my house behind me to learn what caused me to run off.  I told her she had never yelled at me before, and it scared me.  My mother laughed because she knew how Grandma talked without the hearing aid.   I think Grandma was embarrassed.  From that point on she never took her hearing aid out around me and I always looked to see if it was in her ear.  Back in the 1940 and 1950s, hearing aids were about the size of a nickel, flesh colored, and worn outside the ear.  They were visible, unlike they are today.  

Grandma’s parents were both German.  Their parents immigrated to the USA in the mid-1850s.  Louis (Ludwig) Rettig immigrated from Evangelisch, Kandel, Pfalz, Bavaria through the Port of New York on 11 May 1852.  He first settled in Louisville, Kentucky where he met Elizabeth Bell Milch, who he married later that year.  Elizabeth immigrated to America from Speyer, Pfalz, Germany in 1850.  After they had married, they moved to Evansville, Indiana where they raised fourteen children.  Carrie’s father, Fred Joseph Rettig, was one of those children.

She grew up hearing German spoken and could understand German, but she did not speak it as well as she understood it.  In 1939, when Germany declared war on Britain and the rest of Europe, American-Germans were embarrassed to speak German.  That was the time older German’s learned to speak English.  Few future generations of German-Americans spoke English after World War II.  Her German-American upbringing shaped her personality.  She believed in cleanliness and was very frugal.

Another thing I remember about her was how she taught me to like spinach.  When I was about five or six years old, I was spending another Sunday afternoon with her.  Grandma started cooking supper for us.  The vegetable was spinach.  After she had cooked it, she ate some of it and went on about how good it tasted.  She said there might not be enough for me.   She then put a big helping on her plate and a small serving on my plate.  That was not her normal way of feeding us.  I watched her eat it and heard her make noises of delight.  She had me wait until after I ate everything else on my plate before eating my spinach.  When I finally tasted it, I thought it was the best vegetable in the world.  I still like it.   She taught me many things in her unique style.  It is odd what we remember about the ones we loved after they are gone.  I loved her very much.

Next week we will take a look at Grandma Austill's unique apartment and learn more of her philosophy of life.  

My Mother Had Many Strengths

My mother was born Marie Ruth Price on April 27, 1915, in New Madrid County, Missouri in the area they called Big Prairie.  She was the daughter of Henry Price and Caroline "Carrie" Rettig Price.  Her father was born in Saline County, Illinois to a farming family.  He lived there until his parents moved to New Madrid County, Missouri about 1908.  Henry's brother Hillery Price married Clara Parma in New Madrid County on 17 Feb 1909. Finding this marriage in southeast Missouri somewhat confirms family tradition that J.D. and Anyan Grandstaff Price moved to southeast Missouri around 1908. 

The Rettig family, on my mother's side, were second generation Germans from Evansville, Indiana, and her mother Carrie Rettig was born in Evansville, Indiana among mostly German-speaking family and friends.  Her father Fred Joseph Rettig, born 1868 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, moved to Evansville with this family as a child.   After marrying Anna Krieg, he moved his family to Henderson, Kentucky, and then in 1911; the family moved to Scott County, Missouri near McMullin.  Fred Joseph Rettig was a farmer and died at the age of 77 years old at his son, Otto Rettig's house. Otto’s farm was six miles north of Sikeston, Missouri, on the east side of Highway 61.

So, within three years, both the Price family from southern Illinois and the Rettig family from Evansville, Indiana moved to New Madrid County, Missouri.  One of Carrie's sisters, Katherine, met and married Isaac Brummett, who lived on the adjoining farm to the Price family in New Madrid County.  That is how Henry and Carrie met.  They married within a year and had two daughters; Marie and Beulah Price.  Sadly, Henry was killed from injuries received from a tornado two days after the birth of his second daughter Beulah.

My mother and her sister grew up with a widowed mother who was undereducated and forced to live with one relative, then another, for most of their formative years.  Marie learned many things from her mother, however, including shared values and beliefs like honesty, faith, and the Golden Rule.  Marie Price married Curtis H. Cline November 2, 1935, in Sikeston, Missouri.  They had two sons, Eugene and C. F. Cline, and a daughter Margaret Cline Harmon.  Marie's favorite roles in life was that of being a mother and grandmother.

My mother enjoyed flowers and always had flowers around the perimeter of the backyard.  In the south-western back corner were roses and a bird bath.  On the north-eastern corner, she had her prized hydrangeas. She often cut these flowers and brought some inside the house which made it smell wonderful.

She had a beautiful soprano voice, and I loved to hear her sing around the house and in church.  At one time she sang on the radio on behalf of the First Church of the Nazarene.  She passed her musical talent on to my brothers and me.

She enjoyed visual art and took my brothers and me to St. Louis at least once a year to tour the St. Louis Art Museum.  I used to go antique shopping with her, and she was always drawn to paintings and sculptures.  Today, my brother Gene and I are artists and enjoy sculptures too.

I have fond memories of watching her sew my outfits when I was young.  She sewed beautifully.  I was always well dressed, and my clothes were unique.  I remember one time she was trying on an outfit, and I can still feel the love in her hands as she tried on the dress or whatever the clothing.  That is a memory I will always treasure.

After her children were grown, she felt lost.  She gained weight over the years and was not happy for fifteen or twenty years.  Later in life, she joined the Eastern Star, and that made her happy again.  She enjoyed the fellowship and sisterhood.  It also gave both my parents a conventional outlet to enjoy.  I am grateful for God blessing me with a loving mother who did her best to expose me to many opportunities in life.  I believe she is in heaven with my father now, and they are happy.  Before I know it, I will join them.