© Copyright 1999 James David Pearce
REMEMBER OL' ERA
One weekend, Rudolph – Boweaver's friend at the print shop – had to cart his shoeshine stand back to his house for some repair work. He asked Boweaver to help.
When they left the paved streets and sidewalks of the white section of town and moved onto the muddy roads of Rudolph's neighborhood, Boweaver looked around and shuddered.
He thought he already had seen some of the world's worst places to live, but he was finding that Rudolph's habitat was about a half-mile closer to Hades.
After they unloaded the shoeshine stand in the yard, Rudolph took Boweaver in to meet his mother.
She looked him over. "You Cap'n Fred's boy?"
"Yes'm."
"Well, then, you be Nora Copeland's young 'un."
"Why, yes, ma'm."
"Lordamercy, boy," the old woman said. "I used to work for yo mammy when you was born. I washed you and I changed yo diapers. You ever hear yo mammy talk about ol' Era Washington?"
"No'm," said Boweaver. "I don't think I ever did."
"Well, young 'un, I'll tell you, yo mammy knows ol' Era Washington. You go home, and you ask yo mammy if she don't know ol' Era Washington. Yo mammy'll remember ol' Era."
As he and Rudolph went out the door and through the yard, Boweaver still could hear the old woman intoning:
"Yes suh. I washed and changed yo diapers. Yo ol' mammy'll remember ol' Era.
"You ask yo mammy. She'll remember ol' Era Washington."
~~~
Poorer than Poor Town
Little Washington NC c. 1940
Library of Congress photo
American Memory Collection
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