Glo, Sammy Lee and Joyce

“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.”  Maya Angelou

This picture is of Sammy Lee and his sisters at the end of the school year, waiting for summer. 

 The Robinson family worked for my parents on our farm on Jackson Street extension across MacArthur Drive just outside of Alexandria, Louisiana.  This was out in the country at that time.  They lived in a three-room shotgun on the back of the property next to the barn.  Dave worked on the farm doing odd and end jobs for us.  He also milked the cows twice a day.  We got the morning milk and they the evening amount.  Annabelle worked taking care of us, cleaning, and cooking. 

 The Robinsons had three children, Glo, Sammy Lee and Joyce.  Sammy Lee was my best friend.  He was a year younger than I and we were best friends when it wasn't considered proper.  In the south, white children and black children just weren't supposed to be friends in the 1950's, but we didn't care.

 We did everything together around the farm, sharing memories and secrets.  We were children, and since we were free-range you could find us in the pasture, playing Frisbee with dried up cow patties or hiding in the China berry tree, shooting at our sisters with our sling shots and torturing them with the China berries.  We roamed all over the place, riding horses.  Once we even charged kids, from the nearby new subdivision named Plantation Acres, a nickel each to ride on our horse, until the girls told on us, and daddy made us stop.

 I remember one time when we both wanted to see the same movie at the Paramount in downtown Alexandria.  Mother was going to take us. We had saved our money and were disappointed when Mama pointed out that we couldn't sit together.  “Sammy has to go to the colored section in the high balcony,” she said.  I didn't understand.  After being dropped off and our tickets bought, I managed to sneak up to his balcony so we could enjoy the movie together.  I never told Mama.

 Since we were friends, I never understood why we had to go to separate schools when we stood next to each other every morning waiting for our individual buses to pick us up.  Wouldn't it have been easier if we just all got on the same bus and went to the same school? 

 No one gave us a satisfactory answer.

 Around mid-May, Sammy Lee and I made plans for summer.  We had looked forward to fishing or whatever. We had even made major plans to camp in the woods around the South Traffic Circle, something we never did, but felt brave enough to do so.  We had packed our bags, gathered all our equipment to ward off snakes or whatever, and were ready to go as soon as summer came.  Life was going to be fun.

 The last day of school was two days away when I came down with the mumps.  Poor Sammy Lee had to just sit on his front porch with those sisters of his and wait for the mumps to pass.  Our vacation plans were ruined.

 Note:  We stayed friends until we were grown.  Sammy Lee got married young and was at a bar with his wife, on Rapides Avenue a few weeks after their wedding.  Bars were one of the few places any black person could go for food or entertainment in the 1950’s.   Someone in the bar got into a fight, pulled out a gun and began shooting.  Sammy Lee was accidently shot and killed, and his wife injured.  We were devastated. I went to his funeral.

  I kept up with the girls for a while.  Glo ended up working as a housekeeper at Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria. My sister, Becky and I attended her wedding and reception.  Unfortunately, she too died early from a heart attack not long after her marriage.  I lost track of Joyce through the years but saw her at Glo’s funeral.  Joyce was living in Atlanta at that time and was a chef at a restaurant.

This is a piece I did showing Glo jumping the broom at her wedding.  An old African custom that dates to slavery.  Since slaves weren’t allowed to marry, they frequently would jump a broom to show that they were committed to each other for life.                                                                          

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