Grand mamma Said
By S. Staci Anderson
Hello my name is Sandra, I’m eleven years old. I live in a southern town with my grand mom and uncle. I guess we’re a normal family. I go to school and my uncle teaches at a high school. Grand mom is sick right now. But, she says she’ll soon go to live with her father. She says that when she leaves I should be happy because she will never be sick again. Grand moms promised that before she leaves she’s going to teach me how to take care of my self. How to sew, cook, clean, and most of all how to find out something I don’t know. So I’m going to let you in on our secrets.
Grand momma said that when she was a little girl, colored folk were discouraged from learning how to read and write. In some places it was even against the law. She said the white man knew that if we colored people could read we would know when they told us something that wasn’t true.
Grand momma said that when a person reads he can do things and go places in his imagination that he can do for real when he grows up. As for me, I like stories about far away places. France, Italy, Egypt, Africa.
When I was in third grade we got these books called en -cycle- pedias. They had all kinds of information in them. Real true stuff too. I would read about places like Paris France then go there with my friends. I was a tom boy then, so all my friends were boys. We would line up the chairs from the kitchen and dinning rooms, my chair would be upfront, because I was the pilot. I would tell them how high we were flying and where we were going. Once we got there I would drive the tour bus too. We would clime the Eiffel tower; visit the Louvre Museum where we could see famous painting, and sculptures, you know statues, and look across the Seine river. We would eat out side at a small café. It wasn’t really a café at all it was really butter sandwiches with sugar on them and Kool-Aid. All served on my little china tea set.
I would have my dolls model the latest fashions.
Things I made during my sewing lessons with my grand mom. The boys would clap and shout, how beautiful! Of course I could beat up most of them so they had no choice but to do as I said. They had to act happy. For some the return of their marbles depended on it.
Grand momma said that negro people, Now when grand momma talked sometimes we were colored people and sometimes we were Negros. Any who, Colored people were kings and queens back in Africa. We had our own governments, educational systems, doctors and lawyers. Grand momma said we were first tricked into letting our young people go with the white men. We were told that they had found land on the other side of the rivers where no one lived. That the land and the weather was much like ours. They said that they would give us land for our services if we would help them farm it. That we could then build our own houses and communities. Just like they were going to do. When we found out that wasn’t true and that we were not being done right we refused to let our young people go with them. That’s when they began to steal us from our land. Even in our land we had greedy, dishonest, mean and hate filled people who would sell us to the slave traders so that they could keep our lands and girls for themselves. They’re everywhere, you know. Some African people just thought they could make some profit by selling those they had captured in war. Why kill them if you can send them away never to return. It seemed like a good idea.
Grand momma told me stories like this but I never read them in any books. She heard them from her grand-momma and my grand dad whose grand-momma was a slave. One day she showed me in the encyclopedias about a subject called genetics. It was about race species and gender.
Grand momma said that the white man wanted us to always be ignorant. They wanted us to feel like and believe that we were not human. That if we couldn’t read and write it would make us like all the other animals. Then they could tell us what to do and what was right and what was wrong.
I was fascinated by this information. I looked up each word I didn’t understand and I took great joy in knowing something people thought I wasn’t suppose know. So, I wanted to know more.
Grand momma said read learn the definition of words and listen the stories the old folk tell and I would learn to pick out what she called truths.
Grand momma said I’m a pretty little girl and will one day grow into a beautiful woman if I only remember this. “you can never be more beautiful than you are on the inside. Grand momma said that I am to always remember whose child I am, that my fathers rich. I know she doesn’t mean her son, my pops. She said that when people meet me they will judge my whole family on my behavior.
Grand momma said that I am to be an example to my younger sisters and brothers. That I should always have high standards. Grand momma would read to me and of course my uncle was in college back then so he had lots of books when he came home.
Sometimes he would read to me from one of his books. I never understood what he was reading about. I just liked that he read to me. Now I know he was just studying his lesson and tiring to get a read in to me at the same time. I think now, how funny. Cause , I’m older now and I know some things.
Grand momma said keep your room clean, make your bed as soon as you feet hit the floor. Never go to bed with a dirty kitchen. Brush your teeth so they won’t rot and fall out. Always wear clean underwear and be polite even when angry.
Grand momma said emotions don’t think. That it’s best to remove my self from a situation and give it some thought rather than to blurt out what I’m feeling at the time. Cause feelings can fool ya.
But, what if I can’t just walk away? That was always my question. She said that it would take me some time and practice but that I could learn to control my emotions in a matter of seconds and let the good in me take control. That’s a hard lesson to learn.
Grand momma said nothing beats a failure like a try. If you don’t try you automatically fail. If you keep trying you never really fail you become good and successful at finding out what doesn’t work.
Grand momma said faith is not blind. It comes with evidence to back it up. Any thing else is just superstition or a fib in a persons own mind.
Grand momma said that when some one hurts me by saying something mean or untrue they are wrong. I don’t have to like it or pretend they mean me any good. But, I do have to forgive them and keep moving. Because forgiveness is not for the wrong doer. Forgiveness is for the done wrong.
I think my grand momma is smart. She has taught me a lot of things. She’s told me a lot of sayings. Some, she says I will have to keep living to understand. Grand momma can no longer read to me. So I read to her, her favorite is her scripture. I read her red book magazine and her ladies home journal to her every day. She enjoys it when I read. She even lets me read to her stories from my story books she gave me when I turned eight years old. Poems, nursery rhymes and short stories all for me to grow up with. I even read to her a play that my uncle’s drama class is putting on this spring. “The night of the iguana.” I played every part for her. Changing my voice for each character. She just smiled at me.
Did you notice the secret of what my grand momma said?
This is what I learned. Be a continuous learner. Read, imagine believe and take action. Believe that the good In me is bigger than me. Fine out what it is I need to know in order to go, do, be and have what I really want.
Grand mamma said charity ,love, begins at home then spreads abroad. Every generation should live better than the one before it.
Read to get knowledge listen to get understanding, believe to get motivation and behave according to what I believe that I may be wise and live according to the law of love.
This is just some of what grand momma said.
No comments:
Post a Comment