STORIES FROM ASHLAND AVENUE
My Daddy worked seven days a week to make his station business in Andrews a success. At night when he came home from a long day, he worked installing water pipes under the house. He did this without any help, despite the fact that he had a crippled arm. Soon after moving, we had inside water for cooking and bathing. No longer would we need the previous owner's outside pump and outhouse. We had moved up a notch in society.
The front of our house bordered a dirt street which ended near Andrews Grammar and High School a quarter of a mile away. When school commenced that first year, I wanted to go with Bobby and Emily. But I had to wait another year until I turned six.
Across the street from our house was a ten-acre fenced pasture. There was never any livestock in it, so the neighborhood kids used it as a place to play. We built forts out of the tall vegetation, played soft ball, tag, and other games. This was a happy time in my life.
In our backyard there was a small barn with a loft. Attached to the outside of this structure was a chicken yard. A milk cow and several chickens were there. Daddy got rid of the cow quickly because he didn't have time to milk it every morning before going to work. But we kept the chickens, and they were tended to by Mamma.
***
One morning we woke up to the sound of heavy equipment. Looking out of the front window, I saw the men beginning the process of paving the street. For over a week we could not use it to play on. But soon they laid a thick layer of tar down. One day when the tar was still soft, Bobby ran in the front door crying. Two older boys had held him down and stuffed soft tar in both ears. Mamma was furious. She ran outside and spotted one of the culprits standing beside the street. Seeing a lump of tar nearby, she picked it up and placed it on the boy's head. The child went screaming toward his house. As her anger quickly subsided, Mamma realized what she had done. She was so embarrassed by her conduct that she did not leave the house for a week.
***
When I was six, it seemed like every child I knew was losing a tooth, except me. This was important because when you put that tooth under your pillow at night, the tooth fairy would bring you money. Though Joe, who lived next door, said the tooth fairy had left a chocolate fudge ice cream under his pillow instead of coins. I was so jealous, I tried to pull a tooth out but was unsuccessful. Not to be deterred, I found the jawbone of a pig in the chicken yard. Getting a hammer from the house, I knocked a tooth out. I proudly showed it to Mamma and told her I was going to put it under my pillow that night.
"You can't fool the tooth fairy," she said.
She was right. The next morning I woke up early and with great anticipation, I looked under my pillow. The pig tooth was gone. The tooth fairy had taken it. But alas, she had not left me a dime or a fudge ice cream. I didn't realize that Joe was lying about the chocolate fudge.
***
Julia came to visit us and stayed several days. She was Mamma's grandmother and lived in the Big House on Farr Street with her daughter, my Aunt Edna. She spent her time sitting in a rocking chair by the fire in the living room, or if it was a warm day, on the front porch.
When I was a grown man, my father reminded me of the times Julia came to stay with us on Ashland. One day as she was sitting on the porch my father said, "the days must go by slowly for you." She replied, "Bob, when I get up, I have a piece of toast with my coffee, and the next thing I know it's time for dinner and then supper. When you get old, time goes faster and faster. You wake up on Monday morning and the next thing you know it's Monday again." Dad said," I didn't believe her at the time. But now that I'm old, I know she spoke the truth."
There were several things that made permanent impressions on me during these visits. She had a bad hip that made it difficult to walk. One day while sitting in her rocker, she told me to do something. I did not jump to the task. She grabbed her walking cane and came down hard across my shoulder, "Young man, you move when I tell you!" From that point on, my six-year-old mind calculated the distance she could reach with that cane, and I was sure to never come within those perimeters.
Julia dipped snuff. To a young child it looked like chocolate. One day when she was on the porch, I stole her can of Railroad snuff and went under the house. I put a large amount in my mouth. By the time I realized how awful it was, some had already gone down my throat. I gagged, turned green, and threw-up.
During her stay, Julia would tell us stories every evening about her life. Most have evaporated from my memory. But I do recall that she was born in 1858, and that the first memory she had of her father was when he came home from the Civil War. There were also tales about the horrors of Reconstruction when Black militias roamed the urban areas. In rural Williamsburg County where she lived on her father's farm, there was also no law and order. Former-Confederate soldiers, whose bonds had been sealed by serving in the same units of the rebel army, banded together to protect their families and possessions. She remembered White rule returning when she was sixteen in 1876. General Wade Hampton had become governor, and Reconstruction ended as Union troops departed the state along with the many carpetbaggers whose wagons were loaded with so much loot that some broke down in North Carolina as they headed North.
***
Near our school was a small store where children would stop on the way home if they had a coin to spend. Emily and I rarely stopped because there generally was not a cent between us. But since Bobby delivered the Charleston News & Courier, he always had money earned from his paper route. He and other boys of his age would frequently hang around the store owned by Mrs. Long. She had a young man named Belton Eaddy who worked there in the afternoon when she was not present. One day Bobby came home and told Mamma that Belton had thrown a bucket of water on him. Mamma dressed up in her Sunday best and even put on her white false fur coat with black bear claws. I can still see her on the back of Bobby's bicycle as he petaled her down the street to the store. She repeated the story of what happened so many times that I remember it word for word.
"Mr. Eaddy, I understand that you threw water on my son."
"You don't have to call me Mr. Eaddy, you can just call me Belton."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know you that well, Sir."
"Mrs. Maring, he was with several boys in the store causing a ruckus."
"Mr. Eddy, if you ever have a problem with any of my children just let their father or me know, and we'll take care of the problem. But don't you ever mess with any of my children again. If I wasn't born and bred a lady, I would mop this floor with you."
Then she left, and Bobby petaled her back home on his bike. Years later when I was sitting on the front porch at my parent's home on the farm, they were talking about the incident.
"Maude, remember when you threatened to mop the floor with that gentleman at the store. And later he was implicated in helping a serial killer bury several bodies"
Mamma just laughed.
There was another incident involving Bobby when we lived on Ashland. One day a neighbor's child ran into the house screaming, "Some boys got Bobby and Joe treed." We all ran out of the house, and sure enough there were about twenty Black youths surrounding a tree in the back of the pasture. Bobby and Joe had climbed as far as the tree limbs would support their bodies.
"Get me the broom, David Henry," Mamma screamed.
I scrambled away and soon returned with her store-bought broom. The distance was too far for them to clearly see what she was aiming at them because the straw portion was behind her underarm. She yelled at the top of her voice, "Get away from those boys, or I'm going to start shooting." Thinking at that distance she held a rifle, they scattered in all directions.
Looking back it seems that most of Mamma's physical confrontations were over Bobby. Probably because he was the oldest and when things occurred, she had a temper as a young mother when someone trifled with her children. As she grew older and more mature, she handled things differently. But she always defended her children if they were in the right and used the switch if they were in the wrong.
***
Emily and I decided we needed some way to make money. So we came up with the same idea that millions of American children have had. We decided to have a lemonade stand, and to sell anything else we might find. I found a piece of used bubble gum in the dirt beside the road. After washing it thoroughly, I took a hammer and pounded a grape without the skin into it. Soon I had a piece of grape gum hammered into a square. I sold it for a penny. I also had a bag of grapes from Mrs. Cagle's orchard down the street. I might have had another sale if Mrs. Cagle had not seen me climb over her back fence and steal the bag of grapes she just picked. I lost the grapes when she told Mamma. Needless to say, I got a switching.
***
The traveling fair would come to town every fall. I remember my first visit as a young child. Mamma brought me a ticket to ride on the merry-go-round. I was so happy as she let me get on by myself. I climbed onto a wooden elephant. The music started and then the ride began to...
