When talking about the Jim Crow South we often focus our attention on the negative, and miss the positive. I wanted to know more about the good that was in Addie’s life and within the black community.
Amidst the difficulties they found happiness. I found stories of the love, commitment, and strength within the families. I read about the trials of work and the joy of play. Sometimes it was a powerful story about a church revival. Others shared the fun of gathering together around someone’s porch to listen to the fight on the radio, be entertained by music, or by someone’s tall tales.
Many shared fond and grateful memories of the system of mutual support. When a crisis hit one family everyone came to help. Maybe it was providing food, or perhaps a place to live until they got back on their feet. Some of the most wonderful stories are of the elders teaching the children and their forceful insistence that they make them proud.
Because Missy is not allowed inside that sacred community, in Silent Ties we do not see the loving kindness that surrounds Addie. She allows her friend and us only a quick peek at the special people always there for her family and those they support in return.
I invite you to visit “Not Your Typical Book Club!” to read, “A look inside Addie’s private world.” Explore more about the wonderful relationships that may have been part of her life through the words of others that lived during that time.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Santayana