My Grandparents
Tom-Tom, Lisa, & Mam-ma These are my grandparents, Tom J. Johnston and Pansy Louise Lancaster. I am standing between them and am probably less than a year old. I think this because I am not standing up straight. My grandfather was called Tom-Tom by his grandchildren and my grandmother was called Mam-ma. They were in their late thirties when I was born, as their first grandchild, and felt they were too young to be grandparents. So we did not call them "grandma" or "grandpa." Also, in Texas, where my grandparents were born, a common name for grandmother was "Mam-ma." My mother called her grandmother "Mam-ma," too. Tom-Tom was a carpenter and worked at Diablo Valley College until his death. Mam-ma worked outside the home in clothing stores. She also made her own clothes, probably the dress she is shown wearing here. Copyright © 2011 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family