My Mama walked 3 or 4 miles over to the Broadmore addition to clean houses for 50 cents a day. She didn’t carry her purse to Broadmore or take the streetcar. She saved her money and she walked. That was during the Depression.

Then after she cleaned houses, people would bring their clothes to us for Mama to wash and iron. My brother and I would come home from school to wash the clothes and rinse them in bluing water. We starched those that needed to be starched and hung them on the line. When they were dry, Mama would sprinkle the clothes and roll the shirts down. She’d cook and have food ready for us and then we would all clean up the kitchen. Everybody had a job. She and my sisters would iron until 11:00 or 12:00 at night. This was after we got our school clothes laid out for the next day. She'd get the ironing board and we’d iron and talk and sing.

Mama was the mother of ten children. One child died at birth. There were six of us girls and four boys. She taught me how to be a lady and how to teach my children to be ladies and gentlemen. Times were hard and my mama always said, "A lot of times, you smile to keep from crying, because if you cry, you cry by yourself. If you smile, the world smiles with you.” We were one of only four black families on Magnolia St. on this side of the track.

Even though we had hard times, we always had plenty of food to eat and could feed others too. There wasn’t a time when we went hungry. Mama grew a vegetable garden. We looked forward to raising that garden. She had all her grandchildren out there working too. Those kids have fun with Big Mama. She could work you to death and you’d still have a good time.

Mama taught us how to till the ground, make rows and how to plant. In the back of the house, Mama had a fig tree, a grapefruit tree, a peach and a plum tree and grape vines growing along the fence. She preserved and canned okra, peas and tomatoes, made cha-cha with cabbage and jelly with the fruit. I hated canning time and I’d try to take sick. When I was grown, I would never preserve or can anything.

We raised and killed a hog every year and when I was real small we had chickens and a cow until the city banned farm animals. After that, our milk and butter was delivered at the front door by the Phoenix Milk Company. We had ice delivered for the icebox. And always kept a newspaper. Mama said, “Read and you know what’s going on around you.” We read the Houston Press in the morning and later we switched to the Post.

Our oldest sister died and left six children. Mama took those children in. We never put any of our family in foster homes. Long before I was grown, I was taking care of kids. It just comes natural. We always had a lot of fun with each other.

Coming up, it was a must that we attend church and we had to have our clothes laid out before Sunday morning. We went to church and to all the other activities that went on. Everybody in this house had Sunday clothes to go to church – clothes pressed and creased, little dresses starched and standing out.

My mother saved money for the church to help pay for utilities or for what ever was needed. My Mama was always savin’ a little something. Sometimes during the day when we got quiet and she thought we were wondering about something, she would say, “Now it’s time to sing a hymn and raise a prayer.”

This is why my sister and I believe in working and giving to the church and God. It’s what kept my mother going. We know that God will do the same for us. I like life. We had hard times, but we had love.