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2 Up on the Hill out of those nine homes on the hill there were ten children. To this day i can name them all. i can account for and know where eight of them are. The church steps were our gathering place, the grounds were our playground, and a spot under the streetlights at one corner of the church was our dreaming and planning place. We played in full view of all the adult eyes sitting on the porches of the homes up on the hill. everybody on the hill knew everyone, all children answered to any adult, no one locked a door. oh, how i remember those hot summer nights under the streetlight, sitting on the porch steps until our parents called us in for the night. Two of the households i distinctly remember—the Creston Portis family and Alice Walker, who lived alone across the street from my house and who came and sat with my grandmother every afternoon , discussing the latest gossip and the problems of the day. She will never die as long as we are alive, because she would invariably say to my grandmother, “Miss Lula, i’m so full!” My grandmother would reply, “Why, what did you have for dinner, Alice?” Miss Walker would reply, listing her menu with pleasure: “Some black-eyed peas, Up on the Hill / 9 some okra, some cornbread and some milk.” To this day, after a good meal my daughter and i will quote Miss Alice: “Miss Lula, i’m so full!” There was an ice house just down the hill that made ice for the people in the town of york. All of the people living on the hill went down daily to get ice for their ice boxes. My parents had the only refrigerator in the community. We had an ice box also, because the ice trays in the refrigerator at that time were not very large. At this time none of the hill households had indoor plumbing and people got their water from one of two wells. My grandparents had one, and the second belonged to a house that my grandparents had built and given to my father. We never stayed in that house, though, because my parents felt the “big house” needed us and it was large enough to accommodatetwofamilies . My grandparents andthethreeofuslivedthere happily for many years and water from the well was freely available to all. My paternal grandmother, a Spelman College graduate, was the reader and writer on the hill. When the neighbors received a letter, she usually read it to them. When they needed to write a letter, she usually wrote it. She read and wrote most of the communications for all of the people on the hill. other memories from those days include the faces of close friends today. one of the persons has until this day remained not only a friend but, because of our closeness in york, the sister i never had. She is Margaurite Portis, whose family would live in the house with the second well, the one that had been built for my father. The Portis family consisted of the father, Creston, his wife Miss Christine, who was one good soul God created, and their six children . Margaurite, the oldest daughter, and i would spend our days 10 / Chapter 2 playing together at her house or mine but always within view of our parents. And play we did, making up all kinds of games to fill our days. We would tie several tin cans one after another on a long string taken from the blocks of ice that people in the community would buy each day, and then race from one line drawn in the dirt to another, and we played hop-scotch on blocks also drawn on the ground. We would also go behind the church where there was a patch of ragweed, take the weed, chop it up with a brick, roll it in some paper, and smoke it. We got caught with this one. ball games behind the church were also a favorite pastime that could last all day. We were always togetheruntilwewerecalledinformealsandeveningbathsandsometimesweeventookthosetogether !Afterbathtime,wewouldgather again under the streetlight and discuss the day’s events until bedtime . because i was an only child and Margaurite was from a big family, she would often come to my house to spend the night so we could continue planning our dreams and fantasies. i can remember wewouldtakesoftdrinkbottlesandstuffthemwithiceblocktwine. Afterstuffingthebottleswewouldwet thetwine, unravelittomake it look like hair, and comb...

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