01.30.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:23 pm by Administrator
I read the other day that some people feel like every Monday is a new year. I think that’s a good philosophy to have. There’s nothing like a fresh start. I’m so grateful my Grandmother has lived to see another decade. Since she reached the milestone of 97, it has made me think more and more about longevity. As I once heard a wise woman say about my Grandmother: “they don’t make ‘em like her (any) more.”
It’s true, and even despite her age, her feisty ways still make her a force to be reckoned with. On top of that, my Grandmother has always eaten whatever she wanted, has never really worked out, and, until recent years, has never had any major ailments. Even on the days when she reprimands me for trying to take away her independence - “I’m not a baby,” she insists - I realize she still has many pearls of wisdom to impart.
I recently asked her just how she has managed to live so long. It didn’t take her long to respond.
“Working hard” was her first answer. “It gives you good exercise, you know.”
Since she used to be a schoolteacher, I assume she’s referring to chasing kids up and down the hallway.
“Okay, what else?”
“Trust in the Lord,” she added. “Be obedient.”
Then, she pointed out how she made a habit of going to church every Sunday and Sunday school too, the same church my great-grandfather, Dr. John Henry Jordan, attended a century ago. Finally, she added…
“Treat people right. You treat people nice. They’ll be nice to you.”
Hmm. Who knew the Golden Rule could help you live longer too? Sounds like one of a few good rules to follow.
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01.18.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:05 pm by Administrator
So…. my grandmother babysat Dr. Martin Luther King. Of course, we’re talking many decades ago. In honor of this Martin Luther King Day, I thought it would be fitting to find out more about the man - well, when he was a boy.
When I called my grandmother to ask her about it, I was apparently interrupting her as she celebrated MLK day by watching a movie about him. She wasn’t really eager to talk about her recollections, mainly because she says they are few and far between.
“That was so long ago, baby, I don’t remember,” she said, shrugging it off.
She is 97, so I guess I can’t expect her to remember everything. Still, the journalist in me wouldn’t let it go.
“But what was he like, Grandmother?”
“He was nice,” she finally said. “He ate up all the biscuits.”
Funny considering that my dad, as a student at Morehouse College, had his own encounter with Dr. King over a breakfast table at a mutual friend’s home in Memphis. My dad mainly remembers watching Dr. King eat a plate of bacon and eggs (the man’s wife wasn’t home, and it was all he knew how to cook). What is it with Dr. King, my family, and food?
While my grandmother acknowledges Dr. King’s legacy, she doesn’t understand my interest. She thinks I’m making a big fuss over nothing. This despite the fact she played host to little Martin Luther King when his father, Martin Luther King, Sr., a minister, dropped him off at my great-grandparents’ house in LaGrange, Georgia, when he traveled there to speak at the city’s black First Baptist Church. I can only imagine little Martin Luther King, Jr., picking blueberries out of my great-grandmother’s garden. My great-grandmother used them to make her delicious blueberry pies (my grandmother does remember those).
Still, my grandmother’s memories of Dr. King remain fuzzy, and she’s fine with that.
“I know he’s a famous man,” she says. “I think he (was) nice…(but famous or not) everyone ought to think well of themselves. If you don’t, you don’t need to be living.”
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