Page 113 - From the Outhouse 4 -21

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opposition he or she has overcome to reach his or her goals.”

Incident 2: One Sunday morning when neither my mother nor my grandmother was in church, I was

being chaperoned by one of the ushers we called “Ms. Baby.” I had to sit with her on the Ushers’ Bench.
There was another young child sitting with me. Ms. Baby left the bench to go somewhere. I don’t know if

she went to the restroom or not – anyway, she wasn’t anywhere in view. Well, during the church service,

while the minister was preaching, I took her purse and decided that I could imitate some of the ladies who
would stroll into church late. I commenced to stroll down the aisle of the church, and my little friend and

the other children started laughing out loud. The minister kept on preaching as he watched me walk down

the center aisle, past three or four of the benches. By now, I have the attention of the whole congregation,
but Ms. Baby had come back in the church, and she sat me down.

One of the choir members reported my scene-stealing antics to my mother and grandmother before I got

home from church, which was just around the corner from my house. When church was over, I came

strolling down the sidewalk. I was singing, skipping, and swinging my pocket book (old term for purse). I
spotted my grandmother standing on the porch with her hands on her hips. That position indicated great

seriousness and I heard her say, “So you’ve been acting up in church this morning. Get in here, you little
hussy! You are going to get a whoopin’ for showing out in church … embarrassing us!”

Another good thing about Hopper that I enjoyed was that my mom directed many assembly programs and I was in most of them.
These performances developed my appreciation for all of the visual and performing arts. I remember once that my mother served as

the Director, Producer, Set Designer, and Wardrobe Mistress for a particular program. This program featured a variety of paintings

by different classical artists. My mother built large wooden frames, and we posed inside the frames as still-life portraits. I portrayed