Chapter 12 No Longer Business as Usual
Grandma Taylor looked around the room at her son, daughter and the others who had been called together to bear witness to her still to be born great grand son. Her thoughts went back thru time as she swelled up with pride for all that this family had been able to accomplish over the past half century. This was accomplished even though she had to fight every step of the way. This fight was not just with others but also with her self as she sometimes had self doubt but she carried on knowing her vow that she had made that faithful day when her Thomas was carried to the grave too early. She had to fight with some of the Whites in the town as well as some of the Negroes who never understood. She even had to finally fight with her father as she refused to allow others to control her destiny regardless of the fact that she was young, Negro and without a husband. Her father had on many occasions lectured her on the need to remarry for the sake of the children. He also told her that she should sell the Taylor store because that was no business for a woman to run. Her place was at home with her children.
Her thoughts went back to that day in 1940 when she made the fateful decision to expand the store from not just a store but to also have a restaurant attached to the store. It was the time when things were just getting back to normal after the depression and the store was doing well. She did not have the money but she was able to get a loan from the town bank to finance the restaurant. She remembered going into the bank and sitting down and talking to Mr. Jones and asking for the loan. He first tried to talk her out of the idea so she came back the next day with a sample of a dinner that she would be selling. She smiled as she thought of the grin on his face when he ate the first piece of the sweet potato pie. My have things changed but that sweet potato pie made all the difference. She was able to live next to the store and run the store and restaurant during the day even though she had two young ones both under five years of age. While Negroes could not go downtown and sit in a lunch room, it was certainly acceptable for Whites to stop by and pick up food from her restaurant and even sometimes sit and eat with other Negroes.
Her memories fast forwarded to that Sunday when the Church was having their usual First Sunday picnic following regular communion and baptisms which followed the morning message by her father. After the picnic, the members of the Church would then gather back inside the Church for the Sunday evening service. While this was a long day, it was the usual and enjoyed by all. However this Sunday would not be as usual for it was December 7, 1941. This was the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They were all enjoying the chicken and potato salad when someone ran out of the house next door and shouted that “the Japanese have invaded the United States and we are now at war”. The next few hours were hectic as many folks gathered around their radios trying to get news of what was actually occurring. They heard things that were never true such as the Japanese had been seen near San Francisco. Even so this was a day that would change America and begin to put in place actions that would change race relations for ever in Riverside and the entire United States.