THE LITTLE GIRL – Part 2
Penny For Your Thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker
After 5 years of life little girl, her mama and little brother moved in with Grandma and grandpa.
Grandma had an ice box, a coal stove, an overstuffed couch and an old trunk she had when she first got married.
They were never rich but being rich to little girl was food. Living with my grandparents was a life full of praying, going to church and being admonished that certain things were wrong.
The family then moved from town to an old house we called Middle Point Hill.
Middle Point Hill house was a big house and had 2 men living on the other side and sat atop of a hill. Leading up to the hill was a long lane which little girl had to walk to ride the school bus. In third grade the little girl was bullied because of her homemade dresses, old shoes and getting free lunches.
There was no TV, no running water, no inside bathroom and grandpa worked on the rail road.
He would come home every other night and sometimes brought home cases of coconut cookies. Sometimes he brought home black bananas which were very, very ripe. Little girl did not care for black bananas but years later found out they were yellow and were so good.
We were a poor family, so clothes were hand me downs or something homemade. Little girl never had a new dress from the store, but was happy with old clothes.
Little girl never got to go anywhere but church activities so “uptown” was something she never was much acquainted with.
One enjoyable thing little girl did was to play with her paper dolls. She lived her life through those dolls making them shoebox houses and giving them names.
Another move was on the horizon for the little girl and her family. Another farmhouse was close to Hoagland Jackson School. The little girl did not like the bus ride because she was the first one on and the last one off.
At that time, little girl was still very much the part of a strict religion. No nail polish, no lipstick, no rings or jewelry. But she was thankful for the food on the table and her family.
One day the little girl’s daddy wanted to visit her and take her on a truck ride. The little girl said, “No.”
She did not want to go with him. However, mother spoke up and said she had to go with her dad on a truck ride.
It was awful, the dad only wanted to abuse her and she cried out, “I want to go home.”
After the girl got home she told her mother, “Don’t ever make me go with him again. He was drunk and tried to do nasty things to me.”
This little girl had 8th grade graduation and needed a new dress. With no hand me downs or any homemade dresses to wear she had a cousin who gave her the most beautiful dress. In little girl’s eyes it was the most beautiful dress and she felt like a princess .
The evening came for all the eighth graders to graduate into high school. The girl wandered into the restroom and another girl looked at her and said, :Where did you get that old rag?” “Did it come from a rag bag?”
Tears ran down little girl’s face and she could barely speak out. She muttered a few words and ran out of the restroom into the hall way. But that little girl never forgot the bully or the unkind words that she had spoken.
This little girl did have the desire to be like all the other girls and when entering her Freshman year on the first day of school, the first class, the teacher who was a man wanted all the girls that had lipstick on to stand up.
All of the girls stood up and so did the little girl. The snooty teacher hollered at the little girl loudly and said “You sit down you don’t have lipstick on”
Little girl wiped her tears but that embarrassed feeling never left. And that incident stayed with her.
That little red piano was never forgotten or this girls desire to play the piano. Grandma and grandpa had a parlour, a piano, and an old record player. The girl could go in there, turn on the record player and she could be found in there practicing along with the old record player and Martha Carson’s recording of Satisfied.
This little girl grew up, worked, got married and had a family of her own. The rest of the story isn’t done yet, cause that little girl was me and I am still kicking after many years.
Food in my pantry makes me feel rich. Some of those old memories are not pleasant but God has been good to me and I have food in my pantry and still love playing the piano.
My life story has ups and downs, gains and losses, disappointments, but I have a lot of love plus memories.
One prayer I was taught is this:
“Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you God for everything.”
Say this little prayer and this little girl will give you a Penny For Your Thoughts.
