Chapter 4 Fond Memories of the Past
Angela Mims Taylor set looking out the window as Pearl combed her hair. Her hair was still rich although now it was pure white. Each strand of hair was somehow telling the story of her life. She set thinking of how this Taylor would be the one to carry on the family name and its proud tradition. She had already decided that this boy would also be named Thomas for the husband that she so loved from an early age. She had decided that this Taylor would become a strong Black man that would walk the street with head held high and fearing no one. She had seen what the cruel world had done to her Thomas and she vowed that no one or no thing would ever do that again to a member of her clan.
Thomas Taylor had gone off to Howard University in August of 1930 and left Angela Mims home in Riverside. During the first weeks, she wrote him two letters each day for fear that he would forget her. She remembered the year as it was only yesterday. For it was tied inevitably to the Great Depression. The year before in 1929 she read all about things going bad up North and in the big cities with banks closing and people loosing their money and all sorts of things happening. She heard the white folks talking about President Hoover and how he was causing all the problems. She knew that President Hoover did not mean anything to her since she had never seen him nor thought she would ever see him. Those things seemed so far away from her in the little town of Riverside. All she knew was that her father was pastor of the biggest church in the county and that she was in love with the most handsome man in the county.
She remembered her father preaching on Sunday morning and how the choir sang and had everyone in the church just a shouting. The Church did not have a piano or organ but just the stomping of feet on the wooden floor to the beat of the song. She remembered her brother playing the tambourine. My how that it seemed that the only lady on the choir that could sing was Sister Jefferson who was a little old lady but she could really sing. Her daddy could also make a joyful noise to the Lord. She remembered the long days at Church when Church began with Sunday school at 9 and then Church service until 2 followed by dinner in the yard next to the church followed by another church service. Oh the food was so good with the fried chicken, collard greens, potato salad and sweet potato pie. It seemed like they spent all Sunday in Church. She remembered the deacons praying those long prayers and feeling tired from being on her knees so long. She remembered the metered hymns led by Deacon Johnson and Deacon Taylor. Amazing Grace and Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone were her favorites. They don’t do that any more except on the first Sunday when they also have testimony time and communion. It seems that the young deacons just do not know how to do that metered hymn. She remembered praying each Sunday for her Thomas. She also smiled as she remembered the sinner’s bench—they don’t do that anymore either. She was trying to remember if she ever set on the sinner’s bench.
Grandmother Taylor continued to think back to the beginning, to the days that started the Taylor clan. She thought about how lonely she felt that first year that she and Thomas were separated. She had wanted to go to school in Washington with him but her father told her that was no place for a women. He had barely allowed her to finish high school. That her place was there at home waiting on Thomas so that she could be his wife. How she cried many nights missing Thomas and wondering if he was ever coming back to Riverside.
She thought fondly of her father the right Rev. Mims standing in the pulpit on Sundays bellowing out the sermon. She smiled to herself as she thought of the Deacons sitting up front and one Deacon saying “well” and another Deacon saying “ yea” in between her grandfathers’ cries to the Lord. Rev. Mims wife was the preacher’s wife who set on the second pew and shouted amen at everything that the Reverend said even when she did not understand it. She was the perfect wife with five boys and two girls. She had raised her children in the church and had never worked outside of the home. She made sure that their clothes were always clean and that they had good manners. She especially paid attention to Angela for she knew that her husband wanted her to marry the Attorney and Deacon Thomas Taylor’s son. Grandmother Taylor remembered the hot biscuits cooking on top of the wood stove and how her mother seemed to cook every part of the hog or chicken. She remembered the chicken feet in the gravy and the chicken necks and especially the chitterlings. She smiled to herself that now everyone is liking chitterlings and she hated the smell and the taste of those things however she knew that she had to eat them.
Her thoughts went back fondly to the times when she and Thomas walked home from school together and he carried her books. He was so the gentleman and they were so the couple. She could almost feel his arm around her as they danced. She thought how proud he would be if he was only still here and her heart fluttered a little as she for a moment felt sad. Not that there was ever a day when she did not have a moment of sadness for she had been without Thomas some 40 odd years. It was just like yesterday when she got the awful news.
Her thoughts quickly moved to the newest Taylor. The one for which she had so many plans.