Summertime in Memphis 1950…
I’m sure if I could see this house today, I would also say “I remember it being bigger“. If I had to guess, I’d say it was at most a thousand square feet…maybe less. It had a small living room, dining room, kitchen, two large bedrooms and one bath. There were six of us living there: myself, my parents, my sister Eunice who was still in high school, my oldest sister Dot and my almost 3 year old niece Sharon (Dot’s husband had tragically died in a ship explosion when Sharon was a baby). I was an “Aunt” when I was only 2 and 1/2 years old and I loved it. Sharon was, of course, more like a baby sister. As you can see in the photo below, she was, and still is, beautiful. The four of us girls (Dot, Eunice, Sharon and me) shared one of the large bedrooms. I don’t remember it being crowded…I just remember it being fun. Sharon and I would usually get in trouble for giggling long after lights out.
So many stories for Mamie Road…all twirling around in my head…
Once, probably when Sharon and I were about six and eight, Mama sent us down to the small local grocery store. It wasn’t far and was safe enough “back then”. It was early summertime and Mama was getting ready to plant her garden. She wanted us to buy ONE package of LONG cucumber seeds. Unfortunately, they didn’t have LONG cucumber seeds. So, Sharon and I reasoned that you could put two SHORT seeds together and make ONE long cucumber! Remember, they’re the ones who took me away from the farm when I was only two years old! How was I supposed to know?! It made perfectly logical sense to me. She sent it into the newspaper for the column “When Our Children Make Us Smile”. After that, I was teased mercilessly by all my aunts, uncles and cousins who had been privileged enough to stay on the farm! Years later, I was to find out through sophisticated testing, that I’m pretty much divided down the middle: half analytical and half artistic, but I STILL don’t have an excuse for the cucumbers..