One summer afternoon around 1951 or 1952 I remember my grandmother Millie Chandler (a.k.a Mooah) having cat fish in a bucket (pail) of water on the back porch. I did not recall ever seeing catfish before because we usually ate mullet, perch or spot fish. Mooah specifically warned me not to touch the catfish in the bucket because they were alive and could “spear me” (stab me with their fin). She told my brother Artie the same thing. Something about my curious personality or my paying a little too much attention to the catfish in the bucket prompted her to warn me again to stay away from the catfish in the bucket. As soon as Mooah went inside to the kitchen (I think she said she was going to put on the kettle to heat water to skin the catfish) I looked at my brother Artie and told him that Mooah didn’t know what she was talking about because I just knew the catfish were dead. They sure did look dead to me because they were just lying in the bucket not moving. So, I stuck my hand in the pail with the catfish just to make sure they were not alive but to my grievous shock and surprise I was severely stabbed in my right index finger to the bone. Immediately I saw stars and felt pain all over even down to my very toe nails. I still have the mark to prove it to this day. Suffice it to say, I was usually an obedient child but I was also a very curious child too. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to pay a high price for being hard headed and a little to curious.

My Aunt Lucille Hunter was called home to be with God earlier this year. It was God’s perfect will for her. I selfishly wished she could have been with us for many more years to come. Aunt Lucille will always be in my heart and memory. More so today than usual, I had to say a little something to the Our Kindred Sprit community about my Aunt Lucille on this Mother’s Day 2008.
Aunt Lucille mothered a lot of children and other people that she did not give birth to, myself included. She was just that motherly type of person. When she was very young her father Douglas Chandler nicknamed her Mama and that’s all he ever called her. I guess he saw that motherly instinct in her way back then.
I had so many thoughts in my head about Aunt Lucile today but it’s a little hard to put them into words right now. So I will just say I remember Aunt Lucille this Mother’s Day with love and fond memories. I will always miss her.

My Aunt, Emma Mae Dumas turns100 years old today. I always called her “Sister” and she usually called me Jeannie Bell. I did not know that I was not suppose to call her “sister” until I was about 10 or11 years old when her son Jed (Bebop) heard me refer to his mother as Sister while we were outside playing.. He thought that I would get in trouble for doing so. I went straight inside the house and asked Sister if I was in trouble for calling her sister. She said Jean, what have you always called me? I said I have always called you sister. She said well then you just keep on calling me Sister. The nickname sister was used by her parents and siblings. For what ever reason my siblings and I always called her sister. The rest of the nieces and nephews called her Big Auntie. I always thought they were saying big Annie until years later. It was supposed be Antie because we pronounced Auntie that way.
Sister’s husband was named Walter Lee Dumas and was called Bro Walter and sometimes Fell. Sister said it was alright for me to call him Bro Walter or Fell since that’s what I had always called him. Fella was a smiler and just smiled and agreed with Sister.
Sister use to call her husband Fella and he use to call her lover. They use to hold hand and cuddle like love birds on the porch all the time. They were just so sweet to each other. Speaking of sweet Fella gave all his daughters sweet nick names. The first daughter Juanita was nicknamed Honey, the second daughter Mille was Candy and the third daughter Erma was Brownie. Those were his special nicknames for his daughters and he always called them so. The rest of the family always called the oldest daughter honey but the other two nicknames didn’t stick with the rest of the family.
I remember Sister as being a great cook when I was growing up and later when I became a woman too. She had a large family of 6 boys and 3 girls. I was around Sister and her family a lot. She made a lot of different things to eat and her food had a unique flavor and taste. As good as all her food was I most strongly remember the field peas, cornbread and sweet tea. I t was such good, good food and drink to me and she always had plenty to go around. I still remember that big long table we use to sit at to eat.
Sister have a memory loss right now but we always kept in touch for years we use to write each other and talk on the phone a lot. She filed me in on family history too. When my father passed away March 12, 1978 Sister got on the Greyhound bus and traveled to NY by herself to attend my father’s funeral.
I will always love you Sister and I hope you enjoy your birthday with many more to come.

I will always honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a great man of God. His dream, love, hope and faith will remain in my heart forever. What he stood for and tried to achieve during his short life time will not be obliterated. His dream will live on forever.
April 4, 1968 will always be an unforgettable day for me. I was taking an evening class for Medical Assistant in New York City. I did not get home until around 10:00 PM. When I got off the bus my brother Johnny ran up to me and said they got him! They got him! Johnny was so very excited. When I asked Johnny who he was talking about he informed me that they had killed Dr. King. I was dumbfounded, so shocked and hurt.
I was in total disbelief not only because Dr. King had been killed but I remembered that my grandmother Mille Chandler 's (mooah's) sister Aunt Peggy Baker had always said since the beginnning of the Civil Rights Movement that they could not kill "King" because he was a man of God. I truly believed her and never thought Martin Luther King Jr. would ever be killed.
We were all in a state of deep grief and sorrow. For days we watched television in horror and witnessed undisciplined individual who took it upon themselve to react in a violent and destrutive fashion in cities throughout the United States. Dr. King wanted us to have love, peace, hope, justice and racial equality in our lives and the lives of the unborn and honor the memory of those who went on to glory before us. I for one will keep hope alive for everything that Dr. King stood for.

Around 1948 a tall handsome man came to the farm to visit. After parking his car he came into the front yard. Some family members were on the front porch and I was in the yard. He kept smiling at me and I kept smiling at him. Finally, he asked me what’s your name little girl? (I am sure he knew my name). I smiled and told him that my name was Miss Emma Jean and skipped away to the back yard where he followed me. I went to the wood pile where I went into my little song and dance for him. “Here I stand on two little chips (chips of wood) please come kiss my sweet little lips. My name is Miss Emma Jean.” (Everybody always called me Jean except for the people who called me by my nick names)

The man laughed, grabbed me up, hugged me, kissed me and told everyone that I was little Miss Emma Jean. From that day on he always called me Miss Emma Jean and always seemed very happy to see me. He was a very kind and patient man. As it turned out he was my cousin David Harvey. Cousin David was the son of Mooah’s youngest brother Shep Harvey. Years later I found out that Mooah, Paw and Mooah’s sister Aunt May help raise cousin David.

I guess I sort of became Cousin David’s pet because he would visit the farm all the time. He had a blue truck and a black car (I think he might have had a red truck too). He often took my grandparents, Uncle George, my siblings and I to church, town, prayer meeting, school functions and other places all the time. He just adored his aunt Millie and I guess I was one of his favorites too. He always brought me treats to the farm and kindly reminded me to share my treats with my siblings and other people around me.

Cousin David was always there to look out for me. I can remember one time cousin David spared me from getting a whipping from my mother for wetting the bed (which I did not do). It was a bright sunny, pretty day around 1950 and mother had just come to visit the farm from her home in Auburn, Al. Cousin David came by later for breakfast and took us to church. When mom woke my sister Pansy and I up to greet us she found the bed wet. Pansy was actually the one who wet the bed and blamed it on me.

My mother had never hit me before but I knew after this incident I was in for a whipping. As soon as I heard Cousin David’s car pull up I rushed out of the house and told him my story. I let him know that I did not wet the bed. To prove it I showed him that my gown was dry and so was my side of the bed. On the contrary, Pansy’s side was wet and so was her gown. My mother didn’t want to hear it because Pansy said I wet the bed. It was also probably because Pansy was the oldest, around eleven years old and I was around 6 years old.

Cousin David took Mama to the back yard and explained the situation to her. He told her she should check every thing out first and if she still wanted to whip me he would take my whipping and offered to go get a switch to take my whipping with. He finally convinced Mama that Miss Emma Jean did not wet the bed. He was so serious and humble about the whole thing that Mama checked it out. Instead of giving my sister a whipping she gave Pansy a good talking to and told her not to drink too much before going to bed at night. She made her beg my pardon (apologize) too.

I grew up on a 365 acre farm (1944-1960) in Opelika (Society Hill), Macon county Alabama. The farm was owned by my great grand father Sandy Chandler (1857-1939). My siblings (Pansy, Artie and John Stinson) and I were raised by my maternal grand parents Douglas and Millie Chandler. (Grandfather Douglas was called paw and sometimes papa, Grandmother Millie was called mooah by most of the grandchildren.
On the farm we had a lot of crops, fruit trees, pine trees, nut trees, flowers and animals growing on the farm. The farm was wide open and a lot of fun. Only three families lived there until 1957 when Paw’s sister Aunt Gertrude from Florida relocated. The sugar cane patch that was right across from her house.
Around late summer of 1955, my aunt Lucille Hunter left her three sons on the farm to visit for a week or so. . I think this was the Hunter Boys first trip to the farm during the summer time since they got big. They usually visited during Christmas and Easter vacation time. Her boys always came to the farm wired up and ready to go especially Joshua E. and Phillip B Hunter. On the other hand the oldest boy John Hunter D. Jr. was more laid back and mature. John still got into his devilment on the farm though. My grandfather Irving Chandler and family lived down the way from us which is about the distance of a city block or a little bit more.
One day as some of us were approaching Uncle Irving’s back yard we heard loud screaming from Josh saying that he was trying to kill him with a whip. Uncle Irving was chasing Joshua with a buggy whip saying “I done told Lucille’s boy to stay out of my olive tree!” Josh was able to get away with pockets full of unripe olives that don’t fully ripen until October and I guess he ate them anyway! It took a lot of nerve and tenacity for Josh to get into that olive tree. You see, he was small and had to climb up the smokehouse and prop up against the garden fence post to pick the olives. Plus, the olive tree had thorns and was at least ten feet tall.
Later that day or week Phillip got chased out of Paw’s sugar cane field with a buggy whip Paw warned us to stay out of the cane field because he had put down soda (sodium) around the sugar cane to help it grow. It couldn’t be eaten then because it was poisonous to a human during that period of time. He told us this while we were across the road in the peanut patch.
Paw noticed Phillip missing and sent my brother Johnny to go see if Phillip was in the sugar cane patch because the sugar was too tall and dense. Johnny gave Paw the hand signal that Phillip was in the cane field. Paw walked up on Phillip and chased him out of the sugar cane field with a buggy whip and probably made him strike a trot (slow run) back to the house a distance of about 3 blocks or so away from the house. To say the least, Phillip was pretty peeved off to get caught and chased. He tried to express his dissatisfaction and put up an argument about the matter but Paw shut him right down. Paw was the observant type and probably had previously seen Phillip eye balling or other wise checking that sugar cane filed out. I would hate to think what could have really happened had he eaten that sugar cane! He was determined get himself some sugar cane too. If I remember correctly he had his little pocket knife with him so all he had to do was cut down a stalk, peel it and eat it while managing to be hidden from view. I think it was the first and last summer visit to the farm for the Hunter boys.