Mama Said

Chapter 2

Daddy's sisters had all got married and left the farm. Aunt Betty married a Navy man and moved to San Diego. Aunt Jenine moved to LA- she lived in Watts. Aunt Cleo ran away with one of the farm hands, they didn't know where she was. Aunt Frances, the self-educated one, married after she left work at an Air Force base.

His brothers, Uncle Jake and Uncle Hurbert, lived in town but continued to work with Papa on the farm. Uncle Allin who was slow and walked with a limp, lived with Mama and Papa. Shortly after my father's child by Thelma was born, he and my mother eloped to Yuma, Arizona. Mama was pregnant, she wanted to be married before her mother and father found out. Her mother, they say, took it pretty good. Mama's father was steaming mad at Daddy because he ran off and married his daughter.  He didn't necessarily want his daughter marrying a country boy.

Grand Papa Smith a Methodist preacher, who traveled from city to city establishing churches. He was a tall handsome man, who had keen features, with straight hair. He dressed in a black three piece suit, white shirt, and a black tie everyday, and wore black high top shoes. He used a cane to walk with because of his arthritis. Grandpapa had a fierce hatred for white people. He told us when we had to deal with them to make sure we looked from all sides. "Hobb grab me. You need eyes behind your head and on each side to deal with those devious devils." Grand Papa was half white, his mother was raped by a white man. She gave birth to twins. Grand Papa never forgave the white race. Grand Papa felt by building churches and congregations, he was building pride and togetherness among Negro families. He'd say. "We can whip them, but only if we put god first, then educate ourselves. If you can read, you can learn. Ignorance is a sin, remember that children."

His wife, my mother's mother, was a small, short dark skinned woman, who also had straight hair. She was Seventh Day Adventist, who attended an all-white church. She ate no pork or fried foods, everything she cooked was fresh. She even made fresh juices to drink each day. Grandmother was an asthmatic, so the religion she chose was a blessing in ways more than one. She used Asthmador, a power that she smoked at least twice a day for her condition. She was pale and sickly most of the time. Grandmother like Daddy, said he came from good stock. "At least the boy always tries to keep work, married her daughter and didn't leave her trying to raise that baby herself."

Jobs got hard to find after they got married, so Daddy joined the CCC's, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and went off to camp in the Laguna Mountains. During this time, many black men who could not find jobs joined the CCC's. They were black pioneers who helped blaze the way for us Californians. They received a meager salary cleaning passages for the highways throughout California.

My Mama gave birth to Don, their first born, while Daddy was away at camp. Don was puny. Aunt Helen said he was a blue baby. On top of that, he inherited Grandmother's asthma. Daddy left the CCC to come home to help Mama. He applied for several jobs around town until he landed one working for a large furniture store as a warehouse man. In no time, he was a warehouse foreman. Daddy was a hard worker and ambitious, he bought a one bedroom house from Grand Papa Smith, with plans much bigger a larger house on the lot later. Two years later, my sister Lacyne was born. Time got hard, so Daddy joined the Navy, and Mama went off to go work for her mother, who ran a small boarding home for seasonal farm workers. They cleaned their rooms, cooked and washed their clothing for $1.50  a week. After Daddy went off to the Navy, Mama found out she was pregnant again with me. Mama didn't want Daddy to know she was pregnant, he didn't want anymore children. A boy and girl were enough. One of Daddy's sisters wrote him to make the announcement. Of course, he was upset.

I was three months old when Daddy came home.

Besides working for mother, Mama took on a job cleaning the office of the Doc who delivered her babies. Dr. Randolf told Mama he was fixing to sell a three bedroom house across the tracks on the Negro side of town and Mama came home and told Daddy to go see about it. They worked it out with doctor and we moved.