When Mom (Doree Martin Votaw) was born in 1931, her given name was Dorothy. But when she tried to say her name, it came out “Doree,” and that’s the name that stuck. Her mother (Mary Martin) kept a baby book, and filled it with pictures, mementoes, and stories. Among the stories are a collection of cute things that Doree said. They are reproduced below.
When 3 years old, playing wolf and pigs –
Bert: “Little pig, little pig, let me in, or I’ll blow your house down.”
Doree: “Aw, go on. My house is made of bricks.”
While having a hair cut: “You’ll be careful, won’t you? I don’t want to be like Raylene’s daddy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just a head without any hair!”
One morning she awoke and said “Mother, aren’t lions and tigers the same thing?” After an explanation of the difference between the two she said, “But Mother, God and Jesus are the same thing aren’t they?”
5 years old – We went shopping and stopped in front of Kress. “Uh Mother can we go in Kress? I just love Kress.” And as we went in the door she was singing at the top of her voice a radio favorite “No, no, a thousand times no. You cannot buy my caresses!”
At Sunday School Doree was given words of a song to memorize. As she knew the words already, no effort was made at home to go over them. The following Sunday, when asked who had learned the words, she stood up and said “My mother was too busy to teach me but I’ll just stand up with the others and open and shut my mouth and nobody will know the difference.”
Just 6 years old – at the beach a big wave caught her unawares and rolled her over and over up the beach. With tears streaming down her face she came saying “That old wave rolled me up on the beach.” When it was suggested that it was better than being rolled back in the water she said “No it isn’t, ’cause I would have gone to live with God and he probably would have a surprise for me.”
Dorothy had two loose teeth. One came out, and I have never seen her so excited. When bedtime came she said “Now I lay me”, then the Lord’s Prayer, then said “Now I’m going to pray to God” and went on: “Dear God, please make my other tooth come out tonight.” She looked up and said “That was silly, wasn’t it?”
“Mother, does pork come off of a porcupine?”
7 years old – at the beach: “I sure played a joke on the folks down on the beach.”
“What did you do?”
“They all said what a nice tan I had and I said ‘Sure I have, that’s because I’m half Mexican!'”
Waking up in the middle of the night at Granny’s she said, “What’s that noise?”
“Just Granny snoring.”
“It may be Granny but it sounds like bears to me.”
On our vacation trip hitchhikers were numerous. Finally Doree said, “Why do all those people stand in the road and point out the way we should go?”
8 years old. “Mother do you really believe there is such a place as Heaven with a lot of people’s brains just sitting around looking at each other?”
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