Chapter 15 Emma Finds True Love
While Emma Johnson may have had trouble remembering events that happened only yesterday or last week, she would never forget the one real love of her life. Phillip Mays continued to court her as they began to have dinner before or after Church. Phillip had been the middle child of his parents and had come north to make his fortune for he just could not stay in Georgia and know that he would never be able to be anything more than a janitor in the nearby mill or a sharecropper on the same land that was farmed by his father and grandfather before him. He wanted more. He had to have more and was star struck by the tales told by those who had come back home to visit. Every Christmas his uncle and others would come home in big cars and tell them stories of large houses and plenty of jobs for Negroes and he had to come to Washington DC to see for himself. He did come and did not see the big houses or the plentiful jobs for Negroes. What he found was janitor jobs, hotel bell boy jobs and tenement homes. While he may have wanted to go back home, his pride would never have allowed him to go back. For better or worse he was stuck up North in the nation’s capital. However, he had been able to find work and even worked extra hours and saved a couple of dollars. He spent his money on fine clothes and hair grease for his hair. He was the envy of many of the men in the Church as he was always dressed well and his hair stood in place no matter what. While many of the single women were looking at him, he only had eyes for Emma Johnson. They did not understand why he wanted to spend time with someone who was as plain as Emma and with a child.
Not much longer, Emma began to cook for Phillip and he spent more and more time at her house until one night he announced that he was considering moving out of his boarding house room. When Emma asked him where he planned to move, he asked if he could stay there with Emma and her daughter. Not just stay there but asked if she would marry him. This was not so surprising to Emma because Phillip stayed there more often than the time he spent at the boarding house room where he had lived since he came to Washington DC. Emma first feinted that she did not know but quickly burst into a smile and then into a loud and continuous laughter as she liked the fact that Phillip would be there. While they had not talked about it much, she had longed for the day when they would get married.
It was 1939 and Washington DC was changing each day. Emma continued to clean houses and Phillip continued his employment as a truck driver with one of the local stores. Emma had done quite well cleaning houses. She had three steady houses that she cleaned weekly and a few others who used her on special occasions. She had been able to provide for her daughter through the day wages and the left over dinners and clothes that she received from the homes that she cleaned. Phillip had been able to get full time work as a truck driver carrying produce to the different stores in the city. They resided in the Shaw area of DC which is the same community where Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington was born along with several other notables. The Duke was known as one of the greatest jazz musicians of his time. He came along in what some call the big band era. While he had earlier moved to New York to play at the renowned Cotton Club, he came back regularly to play in clubs along 7th Avenue. The Duke along with Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong were favorites of Emma and Phillip. Phillip especially liked the swagger of The Duke as he performed always wearing tuxes and tails.
While they never had an over abundance of food or clothes, Emma and Phillip felt blessed in that they had weathered the Great Depression and things seemed on the upswing. The war in Europe was in the papers daily which neither Emma nor Phillip read for they were too busy just working and found no need to keep up with what was going on some place that they had never been nor thought that they would ever see.