Arlene Gresham
Memories of Flossie Leola White
By Arlene McCormick Gresham, her cousin,
July 1, 2018
When I was seven years old, I was visiting the Keller family in McBride, MI, with my grandmother, Margaret Elizabeth Knowles, who was also Flossie's grandmother. It was the summer of 1930.
Flossie and her younger sister Darlene, who was three months younger than me, decided to go raspberry picking. They took me along, way out in the field behind their home. Then they warned me to watch out for the snakes near the raspberry bushes.
We each had a pail and started picking raspberries. I was intent on the raspberries, and I wasn't watching them, and they snuck off and left me with my pail of raspberries and the snakes.
The thing I don't remember is how I found my way back home, but somehow I did. They were just playing a prank on me, but I was mad at them even so.
Darlene and I have similar names. When my mom, Carrie Reva Knowles McCormick, was pregnant with me, she saw the name Arlene on a billboard and liked it. So she named me Arlene.
My mom's sister Aunt Jennie Knowles Keller liked the name Arlene, too. Three months after I was born, Aunt Jennie also gave birth to a baby girl. Aunt Jennie named her baby girl Darlene.
When I was older and visiting my cousins, Flossie was about 16 and dating Ardale "Whitey" White. They were sitting on the couch and smooching, and Darlene and I were peaking around the corner watching them. He was the one that she eventually married!
