Seajay
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2011
- Posts
- 448
note to admin ...... i dont believe i have posted this before .... if i have ,,,,,, just delete it pls.. cj
I grew up in a very stable neighborhood. By that I mean that about everyone owned their house or if they rented, they had been in the same house for many years and it felt like ''home'' to them and everyone than knew them. With that said, here is a story as I remember it.
John Chandler bought the house beside of us when I was about six or seven years old and lived there for several years with his wife and daughter. John was a good man but he was bad to drink on Friday and Saturday night and he would come home and sit out in the yard and talk to his dog half the night. Back then we had no air conditioning and it was common to leave your windows open in the summer time to catch the night breeze to stay cool. I recall many a summers night I would lay in bed and about midnight John would come home in a taxi and sit out in the front yard and talk to Patsy, their dog, for another hour or so till he got sleepy and went inside to go too bed. Such was life when I was a kid.
John eventually sold the house to a black lady named Rebecca Colson. She was a true ''Black Person'' because she was so black she was shiny She was rather short and heavy set with big eyes and one gold tooth in front. She was a truly hard worker and she broke up her garden spot using a mattock she found in the wash room of her house. My mother went over and introduced her self to Ms Becky and welcomed her to the neighborhood and told her that if we could help in any way all she had to do was just ask. By then my dad had installed a Sears well pump in the well between the houses and we had ''pumped water'' in the house and in Ms Beckeys house also. My mothers health was not the greatest and she would hire Ms Becky to come over and do ironing for her when she did not feel well. I think some of the time mom would hire Ms Becky to iron so she would have someone to talk to during the day. Ms Becky would iron and mom would talk and sometimes she would pour glasses of tea and invite Ms. Becky to sit at the table and rest. I could tell that Ms. Becky was uneasy about this but mom would insist and Ms. Becky would sit and drink tea with mom.
One day Ms Becky told mother that ''Hit aint rite fo black folks and white folks to sit and drink tea together 'cause she was brung up and tolt dat hit wont rite''. My mom reassured her that she considered her a neighbor and a friend and anyone that felt different could simply kiss her butt because she always chose her own friends. Ms. Becky would give a toothy grin and they would sit and talk. Sometimes mom would invite her to stay to supper but she would never do that. She would thank mom and just say that she just could not do that cause ''Hit jes aint rite Ms Cecil''. When poppa would go to the store he would always go over to see if Ms. Becky needed anything because she had no car and she depended on her nephew to take her to the store. Life was good and we did not have to sit and listen to a drunk talk to his dog half the night sometimes.
We had a local ''watering hole'' over to McLambs store where folks would gather out on the ''front porch'' of the store and drink Cokes and sit and talk about everything from the weather to politics. It was not un usual to have eight or ten men sitting and standing out there with a round robin conversation going on about a particular subject. It was ''the. game'' for one guy to try to get the better of another guy by ''jabbing'' at him about something of little importance. Most of the time it was done in good fun but sometimes it was done to belittle a person for some reason. Me and Poppa went over to McLambs for bread and milk one evening and before we left we got a Coke and a pack of nabs and stopped on the ''front porch'' to join on the conversation. John Chandler was there and he figured he would get the best of Poppa by ribbing him about living next to a Black Person now that he had sold the house to Ms. Becky We were standing there and the conversation kinda died and John spoke up and said.
''Well Charlie, how do you like living next to a shiny Black Person''????????????
Without missing a beat or a moments hesitation poppa replied back in a kinda loud voice
''Well John, it beats the hell out of living next to a damn DRUNK that use to sit out and talks to his dog half the night...........................''
There was about thirty seconds of stone silence and then the whole crowd broke out in laughter except John Chandler. Poppa just stood and looked at him waiting for his next retort which never came. From then on when we went over to McLambs and John was on the porch, John would leave when we drove up.
Our family loved Ms Becky When she went into the nursing home my mom and my wife Linda would prepare special meals that Ms. Becky liked and take them to her in the home. When Ms. Becky died my mom and my wife Linda went to the funeral and everyone at the funeral insisted that they sit with the family in the front of the church.
Ms. Rebecca Colson was a fine person and one that we were proud to call Friend and Good Neighbor.
Such was the life of a young man and his first taste of integration ?...
There are many more remembrances of Ms Becky that I would like to post at a later date. She could literally tickle the pee out of you telling about when she was a little girl growing up in south Georgia She was a fine person and a good neighbor.
I grew up in a very stable neighborhood. By that I mean that about everyone owned their house or if they rented, they had been in the same house for many years and it felt like ''home'' to them and everyone than knew them. With that said, here is a story as I remember it.
John Chandler bought the house beside of us when I was about six or seven years old and lived there for several years with his wife and daughter. John was a good man but he was bad to drink on Friday and Saturday night and he would come home and sit out in the yard and talk to his dog half the night. Back then we had no air conditioning and it was common to leave your windows open in the summer time to catch the night breeze to stay cool. I recall many a summers night I would lay in bed and about midnight John would come home in a taxi and sit out in the front yard and talk to Patsy, their dog, for another hour or so till he got sleepy and went inside to go too bed. Such was life when I was a kid.
John eventually sold the house to a black lady named Rebecca Colson. She was a true ''Black Person'' because she was so black she was shiny She was rather short and heavy set with big eyes and one gold tooth in front. She was a truly hard worker and she broke up her garden spot using a mattock she found in the wash room of her house. My mother went over and introduced her self to Ms Becky and welcomed her to the neighborhood and told her that if we could help in any way all she had to do was just ask. By then my dad had installed a Sears well pump in the well between the houses and we had ''pumped water'' in the house and in Ms Beckeys house also. My mothers health was not the greatest and she would hire Ms Becky to come over and do ironing for her when she did not feel well. I think some of the time mom would hire Ms Becky to iron so she would have someone to talk to during the day. Ms Becky would iron and mom would talk and sometimes she would pour glasses of tea and invite Ms. Becky to sit at the table and rest. I could tell that Ms. Becky was uneasy about this but mom would insist and Ms. Becky would sit and drink tea with mom.
One day Ms Becky told mother that ''Hit aint rite fo black folks and white folks to sit and drink tea together 'cause she was brung up and tolt dat hit wont rite''. My mom reassured her that she considered her a neighbor and a friend and anyone that felt different could simply kiss her butt because she always chose her own friends. Ms. Becky would give a toothy grin and they would sit and talk. Sometimes mom would invite her to stay to supper but she would never do that. She would thank mom and just say that she just could not do that cause ''Hit jes aint rite Ms Cecil''. When poppa would go to the store he would always go over to see if Ms. Becky needed anything because she had no car and she depended on her nephew to take her to the store. Life was good and we did not have to sit and listen to a drunk talk to his dog half the night sometimes.
We had a local ''watering hole'' over to McLambs store where folks would gather out on the ''front porch'' of the store and drink Cokes and sit and talk about everything from the weather to politics. It was not un usual to have eight or ten men sitting and standing out there with a round robin conversation going on about a particular subject. It was ''the. game'' for one guy to try to get the better of another guy by ''jabbing'' at him about something of little importance. Most of the time it was done in good fun but sometimes it was done to belittle a person for some reason. Me and Poppa went over to McLambs for bread and milk one evening and before we left we got a Coke and a pack of nabs and stopped on the ''front porch'' to join on the conversation. John Chandler was there and he figured he would get the best of Poppa by ribbing him about living next to a Black Person now that he had sold the house to Ms. Becky We were standing there and the conversation kinda died and John spoke up and said.
''Well Charlie, how do you like living next to a shiny Black Person''????????????
Without missing a beat or a moments hesitation poppa replied back in a kinda loud voice
''Well John, it beats the hell out of living next to a damn DRUNK that use to sit out and talks to his dog half the night...........................''
There was about thirty seconds of stone silence and then the whole crowd broke out in laughter except John Chandler. Poppa just stood and looked at him waiting for his next retort which never came. From then on when we went over to McLambs and John was on the porch, John would leave when we drove up.
Our family loved Ms Becky When she went into the nursing home my mom and my wife Linda would prepare special meals that Ms. Becky liked and take them to her in the home. When Ms. Becky died my mom and my wife Linda went to the funeral and everyone at the funeral insisted that they sit with the family in the front of the church.
Ms. Rebecca Colson was a fine person and one that we were proud to call Friend and Good Neighbor.
Such was the life of a young man and his first taste of integration ?...
There are many more remembrances of Ms Becky that I would like to post at a later date. She could literally tickle the pee out of you telling about when she was a little girl growing up in south Georgia She was a fine person and a good neighbor.
