My House On A Hill

    As I reflect back on my life, there are many interesting aspects of my life that I wasn’t really aware until now. I feel after you read about some parts of my background you might have a better understanding of me.

   My parents were born in Sandersville, Georgia, a small town about two hours from Atlanta, Georgia. It is also the hometown of Elijah Poole, who became the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, who at one time the leader of the Nation of Islam. It was a town where there was a lot of farming and sharecropping. There were wooden houses on stiles, wood burning stoves, outhouses and dirt roads. I will say those wood burning stoves would heat up the whole house, but the floors would be ice cold. We would visit our relatives at least once a year, usually around Christmas. Most of our visits were during the 70’s. I was young and uneducated to the fact that this was more than a text book lifestyle.

     It was a learning experience of how people lived in the South compared to how we lived up North.

     I thought I had a very small family, growing up with my mother, father, brother and my uncle and the ultimate grandmother. I would later learn of other siblings.

     My mom and dad moved to Pennsylvania, before I was born.  They worked and lived on a farm named Kings’ Farm. They picked fruits and vegetables.   I remember very little about life on the farm, except a vision of standing at a water pump trying to raise the handle to pump water into a pail.  Many years later, in the early 70’s I went back to King’s Farm with my mom to pick tomatoes and to experience what they did on a daily basis years before. The amount of money I made for a day of work was low.  I, remember I made less than ten dollars for the day, in addition to coming home very tired and a very sore back.  I can’t imagine coming home to cook, clean, and having to take care of children. I surmise whatever they were lacking in education they had in will power and determination.

   Dad saved enough money to move us into a new house in the suburbs. I remember, having to ride a bus miles away from home to my elementary school.  I only recall several experiences during my elementary school years.  Playing ball, maple pole on the blacktop, fire drills and waiting in the cold and snow for the school bus.  It was about this time at age 6 or 7, I decided when I got older I would move where the weather was a lot warmer.   If you can imagine my height now about 5’1 and then about 3 feet tall walking in the snow about 2 feet had me thinking very seriously about where I wanted to live in the future.