Mama, I will carry the luggage, but I refuse to carry that watermelon on the train.
Mama was originally from Georgia. Her parents were left a large plantation by their slave masters. There was lots of farm and timberland. When she married my daddy it was an easy transition for her go to the home he built expressly for her in the country, although like me she never wanted to be a country girl. When television was invented I saw a big wide world and I wanted to be a part of it.Mama had big dreams and she often shared them with us as we were growing up.
I would keep in touch with her after I got settled up the road. Soon she came to New York with Joy and William.Mabel and I went to meet them at the train station on the afternoon of their arrival during rush hour traffic. I was so happy to see them again we cried and hugged. After the jovial reunion I told mama I will carry the old Samsonite luggage but I refuse to carry the Watermelon Tied on a Rope. Mabel laughed as we took the "D" train to the Grand Concourse.
Soon mama got a job with some people at the United Nations. She cooked in their home as I recall. I remember visiting the swank apartment and meeting some nice people who graciously invited me in the front door. I did'nt realize that only their guest were welcome to the front door. I've often wondered if I was as attractive to them as they were to me.Mama said they spoke often of me after my first visit and I was welcome to visit any time.
I am today a community activist as was mama in her day. She spent a lot of time involved with Adam Clayton Powell.I remember once she was all dolled up for a formal on Amsterdam Avenue. She looked so beautiful in her black velvet dress with rhinestone sequence and her new wig with her mink stole. A man grabbed her mink as she was headed into the meeting and dragged her down the street. She told him, "You might get my mink but it will be so torn it won't do you a bit of good".
Mama made out well in New York. Daddy got lonely in the south and soon he was in New York too. He did'nt have enough education to get the kind of jobs available therefore he became depressed. There was a lot of rioting going on still in the south. One day mama came home and told me she wanted me to go to the March on Washington with her. No problem, I loved to travel by now.I also loved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We packed up and was on our way. Enroute, I became ill and we disembarked the bus in Philadelphia. We had a cousin, Cleo, who lived there. We went to her apartment. My pain did not ease up, they took me to the nearest hospital where I had surgery. I had been scared during the trama of the experience of rape. I saw mama's expression change, she did'nt want to tell me I would'nt have children. I was set back in depression once again.
We missed the march on Washington and it was all my fault. I was so guilt ridden I would'nt go back to New York with mama. I stayed with my cousin in Philadelphia. I found out that all of the women in mama's family were crazy. I went through several ups and downs while living with her, but I had learned, this too shall pass. She helped get me a job at Christ Church Hospital.
I saved enough money to get my own place. I was ninteen and for the first time I was on my own. It was a strange and errie feeling living in a place all alone. I could hear every sound in the walls. Did you know that the wall talks? Of course I was sleeping on the floor. I had to save up next for furniture. It was'nt long before I was set up with enough furniture. I moved as far away as possible from my cousin.
I went to New York occasionally; I missed my family. I missed the country too. I thought if only the smell and taste of that watermelon could have lasted longer. Mama had the right idea when she brought us together that first day in New York with the Watermelon Tied on a Rope.
Sexuality is very misunderstood.What if the tornado dropped Dorothy not into Oz, but onto the shooting set of an X-rated film?
Eric Edwards makes sex films. Period... Sex-on-command. Sex-for-hire.... So begins the story of Eric Edwards, Mr.
