Memories of Daddy (Fred T. Robinson)

From Freddie Sisk and others

We lived in the country near Greensboro when Til (Elizabeth) and I (Freddie) started first grade. Once the snow was so deep that Daddy put one of us on each of his shoulders and carried us to the mailbox to catch the school bus.

Also on cold winter mornings we would climb out of bed in our cold bedroom and run for the kitchen and fireplace. Daddy would often have our socks and underwear warming by the fireplace.

Daddy enjoyed all of us singing together. He could sing tenor or bass. He didn’t play an instrument, but he could tune guitars and such.

Daddy loved to read the Charlotte Observer. As times got better he also took the Literary Digest and Life magazine.

He wrote to his grown children, encouraging them in whatever problem or concern they had. Til has several letters from Daddy that she saved all these years. One of those letters was written just days before his death.

Fred was close to his parents and his brothers and sisters. When Grandpa Luther was sick with heart trouble, he lived with his son Bronner. Fred bought his father a recliner chair. It was the first we had ever seen. He visited his family members often. The day Fred died he had taken his brother, John, to Boiling Springs to see Dr. Washburn. Fred dropped dead outside of the clinic door.

Not long before his death Fred and Era took a trip to Florida to see all the places where they had lived. They visited the Wilsons in St. Petersburg. Burgin Wilson and Fred had worked in construction for Grandpa Hollady there. Burgin and Fred met Ruby and Era as a result of flirting at a ball game.