I found this manuscript written by my mother, Beverly Porter Lewis. It is about her life as a child on the 900 block of Graydon Avenue, Norfolk Va in the late 1920's and 1930's. Some of this tale reminds me of my life as a child growing up on and visiting that same block of Graydon Ave. We lived at 931 Graydon Ave. with my maternal grandparents until I was eight.
The nine hundred block of Graydon Avenue was my world for quite sometime. There were sedate homes lining the sides of the street with sidewalks and large oak and sycamore trees, marching like soldiers on either side of the street. These homes were not small, as it was a neighborhood of people who had the means to take care of them. My father was a banker. A doctor and his family lived next door. There were also three lawyers and two of the fathers were in the cotton business. These were cotton brokers who bought and sold cotton and had offices in large warehouses, that lined the water front in a section near by called "Atlantic City" and it was in this area that my grandfather Jones had a lumberyard called the Atlantic Sawmill. This was sold to the Turnbull family. Years later Grandfather Jones and William Dougherty opened a building and loan company that they called "The Atlantic and Permanent Building and Loan Company."
On our block there were, at one time, thirty two children. They believed in large families and most had nursemaids and house keepers to help care for the children and the houses. I had only one older brother, George, but my best friend Peggy Tyler was the youngest of six. We never lacked for playmates and we did not have to leave the block to find amusement.
Groceries were delivered to our house in a truck and the ice man drove a wagon pulled by a horse. His horse wore a straw hat with holes cut for his ears to come through. He would prance as if he was proud of his stylish hat. In the summer when the ice man came the little children would beg chips of ice and try to get him to give them a little ride on the back of the wagon. The ice man would pick up blocks of ice for our ice box with large tongs and carry the ice blocks from the wagon into the house and to our ice box. as we had no refrigerators then all our perishable food was kept in our ice box.
In the summer for a couple of hours after lunch the children would be kept inside the babies and small children would usually take naps and the older ones were allowed to read or play games. The summers were very hot and without air conditioning we depended on fans or a breeze to try to keep cool. I remember hearing pedlars crying out their wares as I lay on my bed up stairs. The items changed with the seasons. You would hear "strawberries, nice fresh strawberries," or "mel-mel-melons, nice and sweet," or even "crabs, alive and kicking." The high point of the day however, would be the arrival of the ice cream man, or the bakery man pushing their carts. Having as many children as we did on our block they never missed coming to our neighborhood. I can still remember the taste of those goodies, the luscious ice cream, all sweet and drippy, the ice cups, the pop cycles, yummy eclairs, doughnut, and pecan buns all sticky and sweet.
We would roller skate on the sidewalks and even in the street, play baseball in the vacant lots. In the afternoon and after dinner, we would play kick the can, cops and robbers, blind man's bluff, and Mother May I. When the nine o'clock cannon when off at near by Fort Norfolk, we all had to come inside and go to bed, of course the older children could stay up later and listen to the radio or read.
What fun we all had. In the winter we would play games inside. Sometimes we would make fudge or pull taffy. Often we would tell ghost stories, and eat bowls of pop corn. Most of the house had large attics with trunks full of old clothes, uniforms, curtains and gorgeous hats, some with ostrich plumes. All these were treasures to play dress up or for costumes for our numerous plays.
All the families had pets from fish and white rats to cats , dogs and even ducks. The Tyler family seem to out do everyone else with almost a zoo. They had a racoon, a pet possum. flying squirrels, rabbits and chickens. The neighbors complained bitterly about the chickens as the rooster managed to wake up the whole neighborhood a the break of day.
I remember the day that my friend, Peggy's cat had her first litter of kittens. What an exciting day. Every time we would run to report the birth of a kitten, we would return and there would be yet another kitten. This was my first experience with the facts of life.
The family doctor was Dr. Wilson, he was our friend, an elderly gentleman who would come to see us when we were sick. He would stay long enough sitting by our bed to tell us a story or a joke before he would leave. The day that he came to give typhoid shots, the mothers would line us up and he would go down the line giving us all our shot. The bravest one was always first and I am afraid that I was always as close to the end of the line as possible.
Dr. Masters ran the corner drug store. When we were old enough, we were allowed to go with the older children to spend our ten cent allowance. This sounds so little now, but then ten cents to a child was a fortune. There was a display case full of penny candy, licorice sticks, chocolate babies,and little pans full of a sugary pie. This pie was not that good, but the little girls loved the pans and spoon that came with for their dolls. There were also bottles of candy "pills", jaw breakers, salt water taffy, jelly beans, gum drops not to forget the stick candy and bubble gum.
When we were older we would receive twenty five cents for allowance. Fifteen cents would buy a ticket the the local movie theater, "The Plaza," and the other ten cents would be spent on popcorn. After lunch on Saturdays the whole neighborhood would go to the movies. We would see an exciting cowboy movie or an "our Gang" comedy, or maybe a Laurel and Hardy. There would always be one chapter of a very exciting story, which would end with the heroin being tied to the train track with a train approaching, or she would be chased by a lion, the only way to find out what happened would to come back the next week to see the nexr chapter.
All these children grew up very close to one another. the older ones always looked out after one another. My brother was eight years older than I. He took this to extreme to my way of thinking. If he thought that I was doing something that he thought was wrong he would pick me up and throw me over his shoulder and carry me home to my parents.
The Tyler children had some old maid aunts and a uncle who live around the corner on Westover Avenue. Their home was a large antibellum with white columns. This was the Serpell house. The aunts were very good to Peggy and to me. I think this was where my first appreciation for art began. They loved to travel and were collectors. There were cases against the wall in Mr. Goldsborough's room, filled with figures of ivory and jade. There were bearskin rugs on the floor and easy chairs. Peggy and I would sneak in when no one else was around and stand with our noses pressed against the glass doors and we would talk about all the wonderous objects inside the show cases. The aunts collected buttons and snuff boxes. On a rainy afternoon maybe one of the aunts could be persuaded to open the cabinets and let us hold an object, while they would tell us about the people who had owned it. I remember how impressed I was to be allowed to hold Napoleon's uniform button.
On one such day on a visit to the house, Peggy was feeling very generous and told us that we could each take one item home. There were five little girls Peggy, Frances, and I were the youngest and Betty and Gillie lee were older. Neeedless to say we had a very exciting afternoon trying to decide what we liked best. I left with Napoloens buttom held tight in my small fist.
At Supper that night, I could not eat a thing. I knew that Peggy had made a mistake and that she should not have given her aunts things away. My tummy seemed to be performing flip flops. After dinner I took my Daddy's hand and led him to our back steps. I got him to sit down there in the dark back hall, where I finally got up the courage to tell what we had done. That was one of the hardest things that I had ever done. I was so glad that I had confided in my Dad because he called the Serpell house to tell the aunts. The aunts had already discovered the missing pieces and had reported this to Peggy's parents. Needless to say we were not allowed to go to the Serpell house for awhile. My Mother had always told me about the little devil and the little angel that each child had. The devil to push you into trouble and the angel to help you be good. This was the first time that my devil had won, and I did not like the feel of that at all.
At Christmas time Peggy and I would help the aunts make the evergreen roping for their stairs and also help with decorating the rest of the house. When we were in our teens we were asked to help at their annual Christmas party. We felt so grown up in our party dresses. One year Peggy indulged too much in the spiked punch to such an extend that she went home and went to bed. When dinner time came her mother tried to arouse her, and she did not wake up until the next morning. We both received a good lecture and were told to stick with the fruit punch there after or else...
