THE CROSS ROADS

CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

The Cross Roads was God’s country, according to my daddy. It was not just a junction of two roads crossing each other, but a real place to me. The location of the Cross Roads is not on any maps and may not be really important to many folks, but to me it was the greatest place on this earth.  If I stop for a minute and close my eyes, I can see the open fields with farm hands plowing in the rich dark soil that was our farm.  I can see the tall green stalks of corn in the early spring time.  I can see the cotton fields that looked like fields of snow when the cotton was in full bloom.  I can smell the peanuts when it was harvesting time.  I can see the dirt roads, the honeysuckle vines and the blackberry bushes growing along on the side of the roads, the tall pine trees and the huge old oak trees.  I can see all of the things that contributed to the peaceful serenity that I experienced growing up at the Cross Roads.  The Cross Roads is located seven miles from Colquitt, in Miller County, in the state of Georgia.  I was born in the wee hours of the morning on August 13, 1930 at the Cross Roads, during the time of the great depression.

My dad and the black man that worked on our farm went out into the night to get a doctor for my mama. Doctors were seldom reserved ahead of time. In fact, Mama did not see a doctor during the nine months of her pregnancy. Most births were attended by a mid-wife. There was not a hospital near by. It was just luck that my daddy and his black friend would find a doctor in Colquitt, Dr. E .B. Baughn, who would come out to our house on that hot August night.  It would be some 50 years later that an old black man would seek me out.  He said to me, “You are Mr. Hoke Phillips’ daughter. Your name is Peggy Joanne Phillips and you were born on August 13, 1930.  I was with your daddy when we went to fetch the doctor for your mama the night you were born.” The man’s name was Cal Reddick.  He explained to me that he never forgot that date because he had such devotion for my mama and daddy. He told me that he had lots of good memories of the days when he worked with my daddy on the farm. In that few minutes that we talked, I felt there was a special bond between us. It was about a year later, after our meeting that I learned that Cal Reddick had died.

Mama had a very hard labor and fainted when I was actually born. My dad’s mother was there as always when she could be of help to her family.  My grandparents on my maternal side were deceased before I was born. The secondgrandchild on my paternal side of the family was Lewellyn and she called our grandmother “Othermama”. That name stayed with my grandmother and was used by her many grandchildren. Her step-grandchildren from Aunt Ona’s family called her “Sugar Mama”. Of course, to me, she was just my Othermama and I was her special grandchild. I suppose all of her grandchildren had that same feeling. I can’t remember her favoring one more than the other except for me. She bathed me till I was a year old and assured my mama that I was not going to die. Mama had a hard time taking care of a tiny baby. With some women it just comes naturally, but not so with my mama. She would cry when I was sleeping, afraid that I would not wake up.