Memories on Memorial Day

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As a child, I remember lots of children running through my grandmother's house. It was a large old house with hardwood floors and lots of broken things. It also had lots of pretty things in locked cabinets.



A crown I won at a Little Ms. Sapphorette's Pageant was one of them. I was about 8 years old and my mother entered me in the annual pageant at the American Legion post. I could dance and sing and I was pretty. All the men said so. After winning, my crown was placed in my grandmother's locked glass cabinet, in the living room that no one was allowed to enter. It was the only really nice room in that large old home.



As a child, I also remember visiting the doctor's office with my grandmother a lot. We had to enter through a certain side of the building. All the nurses would comment about how pretty I was and my grandmother would later tell me, "Chil' that don't mean nothin'. We still sittin' on the colored side of this here office." It wasn't until I was a little older that I understood what she meant.



I'm searching my brain trying to remember all the names of my grandmother's 13 children and I suddenly realized that "children" I thought were her children were actually grandchildren being raised as her own. I can only count 8 aunts and 1 uncle. I've always heard my grandmother had 13 children -- but you know how people exaggerate when there are a lot of mouths at the kitchen table (and I remember a lot of mouths at the table). I'll have to call her and clarify. But, after yesterday's interview, I need to give her a break for a day or two.