Page 14 - The Crown 2015-2017

42. I use to think the police were afraid of the Negro mother.

43. You were often whipped with a switch that you had to select. If it did not
meet your mother’s approval, you had to go back out doors and select
another.

44. You had a curfew. You met your curfew. You were not 5 minutes late.
Mother met you at the door. Questioned your friends.

45. Who are you? Where do you live? Who are your parents? Do they know
you are over here? What is their number? Don’t honk in front of my
house. That is country. Get out. Let me see how you are dressed and I
need to smell your breath.

46. The best of times and the worst of times.

47. Two people had the same number or so it seemed. If you picked up your
phone and heard another person talking, you just hung up. Two party
line and each party paying the price for one phone line.

48. We seemed to share everything: butter, pots, pans, water when yours
was cut off, clothes, phone. We were community

49. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

50. We learned that every closed eye ain’t shut and every good bye ain’t
gone.

51. We were told to stand for something or you will fall for anything.

52. My mother worked two jobs to make the ends meet. At times it seemed
that the harder she worked, the end zone move.

53. She came home with swollen feet and tired hands and still cooked and
cleaned up at home and sat with you until you did your homework.

54. Now we have I-Pods, internet, nobody is talking to each other in the
house. You are talking and texting and sexting somebody else.
Everybody takes their plate and sits somewhere in the house in front of a
television. Parents don’t know who you are talking to.

55. Our parents were smart in 1969. As we sat at the table and talked about
what happened at school and on the way home, mother learned
everything she needed to know and we did not realize it. We were just
talking about the day.

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