Yesterday and Today : Being the little sister had many advantages
Posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Today we come to Joann Pitts Bryles, the third daughter and youngest of seven children, of Jack and Agnes Ross Pitts. It has been interesting and fun to visit by telephone and e-mail with Joann and Vivian Taylor Pitts as I gathered education, career information and tales of youthful escapades of that Pitts family. Theirs, like most all families, had their little insider hot buttons that bring those tales to mind. And oh my ! How those tales did fly when, at the Joe Pitts funeral visitation, I happened to be in the same company with the widow and daughter of Jim Pitts, Mary Sue and Lisa Pitts, and L. J. and Bobbie Easley Dart.
Joann graduated from Rogers High School in 1956. Some of her schoolmates from Garfield were Barbara Jane Harris, Carolyn Vance, Barbara Taylor, Wyvonna White, Billie Jean Hyden and Buddy Dean Wright. Joann continued her education at a business college in Tulsa and then returned to Benton County where she worked for Farmer's And Merchant's Bank for 28 years. She later worked for several years in the Benton County Circuit Clerk Child Support office.
Joann married H. L. Bryles from Prairie County, Ark. in 1958. H. L first attended a one room school for eight years. He often joked that he had 64 years of schooling before he finished eighth grade. They purchased a home in Rogers where Joann has lived for 42 years. They had two children, Leslie and David, both of whom now live in Little Rock. H. L. died in 2007.
Joann and I have laughed about the trials of being the youngest child with all of those bosses trying to run our lives. And usually being the closest available auntie or playmate for those many nieces and nephews. Joann tells me that time and again she was needed to help her mother while her dad was needing help out around the farm. She learned to drive the tractor when she was still too light weight to get the brake pedal all the way down. Once she could not stop the tractor with its hay laden trailer. Her dad instructed Ben and John to "jump"before they all went through the fence. John saving the day, and already practicing his navigator skills, yelled for her to "just turn the steering wheel. "But being the little sister had many advantages, too. As John and Ben, as did my older brothers, oftentimes came to our defense whenever and wherever defense was needed.
However, sisters seem to be different than sisters-in-law. I do not recall that my sistersin-law ever expected any real efforts on my part. It was rather the other way around - as they repeatedly provided help and encouragement for me. I mentioned in an earlier column that when Joann visited Glenda before the birth of one of Glenda's children they, Joann and Glenda, had done a "stem-to-stern "house cleaning. Anybody remember the days before wash n'wear when housewives saved their ironing in the freezer ? One of Wanda's expectations of Joann was that Joann would do that "saved "ironing when Joann made her annual summer "vacation "visit to Wanda's home in Kansas City. Furthermore, Joann was expected to do the refurbishing and refitting of clothing that Wanda had recently accumulated. When finished with those tasks the vacation could start. Joann's question was "What vacation ? "I "dunno," but if I had known that Joann was so talented I might have invited her to my house for a vacation.
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