(There is some confusion about Pa Charlie's middle name, some say it was Carson and some say it was Columbus.)

Pa Charlie is the name we all had for him.  He was born February 18, 1866 and he died November 7, 1962.  He was married to Judy Clementine Robinette.  They were farmers. They had five children - William, Blanche, Robie, Augustus, and Ruth.  

Paula remembers him as an old man who walked, bent over at the waist with his hands folded across his back.  His wife died in 1934.  He lived in an old farm house in Taylorsville, NC with my great Uncle Robe and great Aunt Katy. 

When I visited them with my parents and brothers and sister, Uncle Robe and Aunt Katy seemed old to me also, but were probably just in their 40's or 50's.  Aunt Katy was a heavy set woman with large, swollen legs and a very raspy sounding voice.  Uncle Robe was tall and thin and very rugged looking. 

The farmhouse was made of old-weathered wood and had wooden floors. The living room was small with a pot-bellied stove to keep it warm.  Pa Charlie always sat next to the stove to keep warm. The kitchen was long and narrow. There was a pump at the kitchen sink and a long table with bench seats.  The children had to wait until the grown-ups ate before they could sit at the long table and eat. 

There was a parlor that was always closed up and dark and cold and my brothers, sister and I were afraid to go into it, but would always open the door and peek inside.  It was always very cold in there even in the summer time, that is, I always thought so.  There were bedrooms upstairs and very steep and narrow steps that went up to the rooms.  I don’t think we were ever allowed to go up there.  But my sister, Brenda, said she did. 

There was an outside john where you had to go to the bathroom.  I was always afraid of falling in and would beg my sister to go with me whenever I needed to go there.  

There was an old barn not far from the house and we were allowed to go there and play.  It had a hay loft and we would go up and look out and thought we were “way up high”.   My brother, Wayne, said he once was outside by himself and a turkey started chasing him.  He climbed up into a hay wagon to get away from him and cried for help.  Wayne said Brenda came outside and asked what was the matter.  He told her about the turkey and she said, "Don’t be a baby, the turkey won't hurt you."  She made him come down and they started for the house and the turkey chased them all the way to the door.

The old farm house burned down.  When my son, Billy, was a baby, we went with my parents and my grandmother, Ova, to visit Aunt Katy and Uncle Robe at their new house.  It was across the road from where the old farmhouse had been. Everything looked different and even the old barn looked really small. 

Pa Charlie, Aunt Katy and Uncle Robe are buried at the Little River Baptist Church in Taylorsville, NC along with many, many other Mullis relatives.  Once when Pa Charlie was taken to the Carolina coast to see the ocean, he stood for a long time just staring out at the sea.  Finally, he said, “That’s a mighty big creek.”