Chapter 18 Looking For A Change
Grandma Taylor waited patiently as the time for the newest Taylor to arrive. She had learned patience through her almost 70 years on the earth, Grandma Taylor quietly remembered the return of the soldiers after World War II. As these soldiers returned, they were looking for things to be different. However things had changed very little while they were across the pond fighting for someone else’s freedom. Grandma Taylor noted that the Negro soldiers still were not allowed to eat in the White restaurants. They still drank from separate water fountains and were made to wait until all of the White soldiers had entered the hotels and then the Negro soldiers were led to the back to find a place to sleep.
However because of the Negro soldiers being treated like second class citizens, her business continued to prosper. Her restaurant continued to grow as both Whites and Negroes came to her restaurant to eat the specially made sweet potato pie. While she heard about things beginning to change in other parts of the United States, she could only see how she and others lived in Riverside. In fact things were not too bad for her. She owned her store and restaurant and was usually treated ok by the Whites. While she had to buy things at a higher price than many of the White store owners, she still was able to sell her items at a decent price because she relied mostly on her restaurant where the business continued to grow.
Grandma Taylor remembered going out to the park to see the Negro League Baseball Players. While the Negroes could not play in the White league, Whites and Negroes gathered together on Sundays after Church to see the Negro players play local players from surrounding towns. Grandma Taylor also used this as an opportunity to make money as she sold slices of her sweet potato pie along with homemade lemonade and sweet tea. In fact the Negro players often stopped by her restaurant after the game to eat since there were no other places for them to sit and eat. She fondly remembered a couple of players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Jackie Robinson. She remembered how quiet Jackie Robinson was and always so polite.
Grandma Taylor remembered Josh Gibson and his massive homeruns and she remembered Satchel Paige and how he laughed each time he struck out the town’s best hitters. She remembered how fast Jackie Robinson was running the bases and how she wondered how good they would be if they could play in the Major Leagues.
She had read many stories in the Negro paper about Jackie Robinson and how he had played at that college in California called UCLA. Jackie Robinson had been a star athlete at UCLA where he lettered in four different sports. He was the first to do such at UCLA. He participated in Track and Field, Basketball, Football and Baseball. Jackie had also been in the army during the war.
While it was not spoken very loudly around Riverside, the Negroes had also heard stories about Jackie while he was in the army. Jackie had refused to move to the back of the bus when ordered to do such by the bus driver. He was later arrested which led to a formal court martial. He was found innocent of those charges and then continued to serve in the army throughout the war even though he did not go overseas.
In 1946 Branch Rickey signed Jackie to a major league contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He first played in Montreal before beginning play in Brooklyn in the 1947 season. In 1947 Grandma Taylor became a fan of Brooklyn Dodgers as did most Negroes even those who never liked baseball or followed baseball. She did not remember who first said it but she still uses the phrase “faster than Jackie Robinson”.