TEXARKANA, 1933 REPOST, PLEASE COMMENT IF POSSIBLE ! THANKS!

Continued  (It took a lot of encouragement to get my mom to write this, as she doesn't think she is a 'writer', so if you have time to comment, I will be sharing comments with her as her Mother's Day Gift! She loves to hear what you think.  Thank you!)

She was a very boisterous, lively child with a big smile, large brown eyes and long brown hair with a natural curly bounce.  She wore nice, store bought clothes and her shoes did not have holes in the soles and seemed to be the correct size for her feet at that time.  Not too small, so she would have to scrunch up her toes to even put them on!  She was kind to me and I surely needed a friend in this new and strange world.   I think I was as enthralled by her name as I was by her personality.  This was Sophie.  She was an only child and I believe now, looking back, that she was not nearly as secure as she appeared to be to my country girl eyes. 

She invited me to her birthday party and I was thrilled and scared all at the same time.  I had never been to a birthday party and I didn't have money to buy a present and neither did my mother.  I did not have a pretty party dress, which all the other kids did have, so I was torn between the yearning to go and the fear of not fitting in.  Aunt Zula came to my rescue as far as a gift goes.  She gave me an entire carton of some sort of "penny" candy.  Best I can remember seems like it was some sort of Halloween candies.  I do remember orange and black.  Her birthday was in the spring! This carton of candy was most likely left over from the previous fall, but I was not aware of such shenanigans and all the kids at the party (and at school afterwards) thought it was a great gift.  And Sophie liked it, so that made it a good day for me. 

Mama managed to get new fabric somehow, and made me a new dress, which had four pockets!  Two on the shirt and two on the skirt, and all the girls oohed and ahhed over my pretty new dress.  So I was very happy and wished Sophie a very happy birthday!  I think she had a very happy day.  I decided I liked parties.  I decided it was o.k. to dress fancy now and then and not always be in overalls.  I decided it was nicer living in a house with four walls, windows and a solid floor rather than in a canvas tent or a cow barn with a dirt floor. 

I also decided having a car was a good way to get to school, church or special events, like birthday parties!  I soaked up all those 'new age' ideas like a sponge.  Although, even at that young age, I sensed that this life style would be short lived for us.  It seems I have always been an old soul.

By the time the school year was out, Daddy was out!  Gone.  His male ego just wiped him out and he felt he could not compete in Aunt Zula's world.  So he quit.  Now here Mama was, stranded in this situation, with four young children and no means of support.

Thank goodness Aunt Zula thought highly of my little mother, and she continued to try to help us survive.  My older sister and I would help in the 'peanut patty' making process, and we would tend the back door bell to sell sacks of "scraps".  The scraps were patty bits and pieces left after taking the rounds out of the molds. We also helped with housework and yard work and errand running.  I'm sure Aunt Zula must have paid our house rent and electric and water bills.  Mama worked at anything she could also, like in Aunt Zula's beauty salon! 

Mama and a neighbor lady held a 'rummage sale'.  Today they call it yard sale or garage sale. There was a park like piece of land across the street and down a slope from us, and there were tables and benches and a wide path ran through this place.  Lots of 'Negroes' walked through on their way to their part of town, which was called the 'quarters'.  So we held our rummage sale and earned a few bucks and that's where the mutilated dime came from!  Also Mama and a neighbor contracted with the 'well-to-do' black ladies to sew some exotic housedresses and lounging pajamas.  That was a neat experience.  They would come to our house for a fitting and they were so friendly and fun.  Mama became friends with them.  They were wonderful, warm folks.

My older sister and I were sent to the big Safeway or A&P, don't recall which one, with this dime that had a hole drilled in it, that was then filled with lead or some kind of metal.  We were to buy a loaf of bread.  We paid our dime and were given the loaf of bread and were at the end of the block when the man came running after us.  He was saying we could not have the bread because our dime was no good.  So they kept our dime and took back the loaf of bread, leaving two terrified, very bewildered little girls, empty handed, and not knowing what to say to Mama.  She took some of her glass canning jars to a small store down the street and sold enough to get a loaf of bread and a pound of bologna.  We had already used all the good home canned food and we had no garden, nor fields of peas, nor fruit or berries to use the canning jars for.  So, Mama sold them.  We did not eat well, but Mama saw to it that we did not starve!  She was very creative and very strong, even though she was so petite and fragile.

TO BE CONTINUED ! THANKS FOR READING!