My sister Pearl held an arm full of leaves. My mother held our hands. I held my doll. We were standing in the vacant lot near the parsonage of St. John’s Congregational Church in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Click for another post about life on Union Street in Springfield.
Saturday, October 10, 2015 marks the 300th Sepia Saturday. In reviewing my contributions for the past 100 Saturdays, I found that I did not participate in 19 of them. I decided to post photographs for those 19 missing prompts. Most of the photographs are more recent than my usual offering. Click any image to enlarge.
“Kris May 1947” I was viewing the world from on high, not quite as high as the men in the prompt but it seemed very much so to me. I also seem to be giving a lecture.
The family table at the testimonial dinner for my father, Rev. A.B. Cleage Jr. 1963. No Christmas tree, but lots of lights up there in the ceiling and food on the table. Henry with the cigarett, my mother in front of him. I am across the table from her. My aunt Barbara is looking towards the camera. Uncle Eddie Evans eating at the end of the table.
Not a parade, but my family walking down Cass Ave in Detroit, after eating at a Lebanese restaurant near Wayne State University. Women and girls in the front, guys way back. And me at the very end, taking the photo. Osaze does not have a swan head on, but he is wearing a cap.
This is a newspaper clipping I found of a demonstration in support of school busing. I recognize only General Baker, right front, holding his daughter.
Cousin Ernest with unidentified girl and a few horses with their heads down.
Granddaughter Sydney looking into tunnel like opening in the fort on Sullivan’s Island, SC. This is where many enslaved African’s entered the United States. Our “Ellis Island”.
On my grandchildren’s birthday, we give them a dollar for each year, plus one to grow on. When I turned 66, they gave me a dollar for each year, plus one to grow on. Here I am counting it up. About as close as I have been to piles of cash.
Maybe this is why Gladys and Anna were looking so worried in the last photograph. Gladys seems safely behind her father and Anna looks pretty worried.
This might be Duke, but I’m not sure.
This is a photograph that may be from my family photographs or may be a photograph I found. I do not know who they are.
My mother Doris and her sister Mary Virginia with their dog Bonzo. The picture was taken in August 1932, about 6 months after their brother Howard died of Scarlet Fever. Mary V. was 12 and Doris was 9. The sisters were granddaughters of Jennie Virginia Allen Turner, who was the daughter of Dock and Eliza Allen. My mother later had a sister-in-law named Gladys Cleage, who will celebrate her 93rd birthday this Saturday. I could not find a photograph of her with a sister and a dog, but here she is with sister Anna.
Gladys and Anna were the grandchildren of Lewis and Anna Cecilia Cleage, and great granddaughters of Frank and Juda Cleage of Athens, TN.
Two other posts about my parent’s time in San Francisco
My Parent’s Time In San Francisco
Newspaper Clipping of My Parent’s Arrival in San Francisco
A post about my life on St. John’s Road, Mississippi
R is for Toute 1 Box 173 & 1/2
Mershell Graham was born June 10, 1921 in Detroit Michigan. He died on November 2, 1927, at St. Jopseph Hospital, also in Detroit, from traumatic cerebral hemorrhage resulting from a fracture at the base of the skull during an automobile accident. Mershell was described as a single, colored male, a school boy age 6 years 4 months and 23 days old. He lived at 6638 Theodore Street with his family. He was buried in Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery on November 4, 1927. Both of his parents, Fanny Turner Graham and Mershell C. Graham were born in Montgomery Alabama. His father, my grandfather, Mershell Cunningham Graham, was the informant.
You can read more personal memories and descriptions of my Uncle Mershell’s death at these links links – Births, Deaths, Doctors and Detroit Part 1; 1940 Census – the Grahams – Supplemental Material; Go Bury thy sorrow – complete words and tune. Mershell Cunningham Graham
I’ve written other posts about Idlewild which you can see here: Building Uncle Louis’ Cottage, On Lake Idlewild, Idlewild 1953 – Sentimental Sunday
Howard Alexander Turner was my mother’s youngest brother. He was named after my grandmother’s father, Howard Turner. Howard was born September 7, 1928, in the year following his older brother, Mershell’s death by trauma after being run over by a truck on the way back to school. My grandparents felt that Howard had been sent to fill the space left by Mershell. Unfortunately he died of Scarlet Fever, exacerbated by Diabetes in 1932.
Howard died at Herman Kiefer Hospital in Detroit. He had been ill for fifteen days before his death. He is described as a single, colored male age 3 years, 5 months and 27 days old. His mother’s maiden name was Fannie Turner and his father was Mershell Graham. Both were born in Alabama. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and lived at 6638 Theodore St. in Detroit. He died at 5:05 AM on March 4, 1932. His father was the informant.
I wrote more about Howard in these, much more personal posts with copies of his mother’s thoughts and memories:
This photograph was taken in 1950, the year before this other wagon photograph 3 in a wagon. This time Dee Dee the photographer appears with us. My sister Pearl and I had just moved to Detroit from Springfield, MA. We spent most Saturdays at our maternal grandparent’s house with our cousins Dee Dee and Barbara.
