Chapter 10 Mother Without a Home
As the sun began to go down, Missy thought about her Granny and how they had shared life with each other. She began to think about the first time that she really had a memory of her grandmother. She remembered her grandmother cooking cookies and she trying to get them while they were hot. She also remembered licking the bowl and her Granny letting her lick the wooden spoon. She could still smell the freshly cooked cookies and how she yearned for the cookies. As much as she had tried, she never learned how to cook the cookies like Granny. Granny never used a recipe book. She just put in a pinch of this and a pinch of that and it just seemed to all come out right every time. Missy remembered the first time she tried to cook cookies and they all stuck to the pan but Granny ate one and said how good it was. Missy knew that the cookies were cooked too long and that the edges were burnt but Granny did not say anything except that they were good.
As far back as she could remember she always wondered about her mother. While all the other children had a mother, she only had Granny. Her Granny spoke of her mother on rare occasions but never spoke of her father. Even to this day, she did not know who her father was. She had made the mistake to ask Granny once and Granny gave her a stare like she had never gotten before so she knew not to ask again. For a brief second, Missy thought of her newly found grandfather. She wondered if she should ask him if he knew who she was. She wondered what he would say if he only knew, With a smile, she wondered what his wife would say or even more, what would the Church say. – The Right Rev Doctor Clarence Mims pastor of the largest Church still in Riverside. More importantly, she thought of James Mims, her friend- cousin?
It was as if Emma had heard Missy thinking about the past as she woke. She started off where she had left off- talking about her time in Washington DC. Emma began to tell Missy about her brief time at St Marys. She stayed there until Missy’s mother was born. However when it came time for her to give up her baby for adoption she could not do it. The hospital staff tried and tried to get her to sign the final papers but she would not do such for she loved her baby girl and knew that the baby was the only thing in life for her.
Emma went on to tell Missy about the early years. It was during the time of the Depression and there was little work to be found. Emma was able to obtain housing in a tenement house in south DC. She got a job cleaning the grounds on what is now known as the Mall area in DC where the Washington Monument and Lincoln Monuments stand. This was through one of those alphabet soup programs started by then President Roosevelt. She was lucky to have a neighbor who would watch Missy’s mother while Emma worked.
Emma worked 10 hours a day and made $15 a week. This was less than .50 per hour. That does not seem much now but in 1935-37, the price of a gallon of milk was .47 and a loaf of bread cost about .08 a loaf. A postage stamp was .03 and a car cost only $580. Emma was just happy to work. 1 out of every 5 Whites was not working and worst yet 1 out of every 2 Coloreds was not working. She remembered that they lived in a one room apartment which rent was $18 per month.
Emma wanted to go home, back to Riverside Mississippi but when she wrote home, her father told her that she could not come back with a baby. That would bring shame on the family and he would never allow that to happen. Emma then realized that she was destined to stay in Washington DC with her daughter.
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The last part of the 1930s was better than the first half. The country began to slowly get out of the Depression. However, Emma remembered the beginnings of the War. She remembered folks talking about the Nazis and Adolph Hitler and she remembered folks talking about the Japanese and the Italians coming together. All of this talk did not mean much to Emma as she was busy just trying to make ends meet for she and her daughter. She also remembered all of the hoopla around President Roosevelt getting reelected and many Coloreds voting for him. It appeared that Coloreds had begun liking him because he at least had invited some Coloreds to the White House. These included folks like Mary McCloud Bethune. She also remembered how Coloreds liked his wife Eleanor. Eleanor Roosevelt was seen as a friend to the Coloreds. It was Eleanor Roosevelt that invited Marion Anderson to sing at the steps of the Lincoln Monument after she had been denied the opportunity to sing at Washington's Constitution Hall when the Daughters of the American Revolution, a political organization that helped manage the concert hall, denied her the right to perform on account of her race.
Emma continued to talk to Missy about the times before World War 11 but did not talk again about her mother. Missy began to realize that she was not even sure what was the real name of her mother and even more so she could not even put a picture of her mother in her mind.