*That summer of 1983 I worked as
an English Skills Specialist for the University of Maryland
College Park. Under the encouragement of Dr. Donna Hamilton, my
former Shakespeare teacher, I interviewed that summer for
a teaching position at the University of Northeast Louisiana
University (NLU). The school paid for my flight to Monroe for
the interview. The evening after the interview before I caught
the plane, I was treated to a cat fish dinner by the dean. On my
return to Maryland, I talked to several professors in the
English Department before I made my decision to accept the
position. My mentor Dr. Wilson, fearing my safety knowing my
temperament, objected to my going into the deep South. But I
wanted to know New Orleans and Monroe was three hundred miles
from that romantic city. I had been there before while I was
married in the early 1970s. Then I gave my 59 Porche to a friend
named Steve Smoot. He never picked it up and it was eventually
towed away. I then sold all that I had and caught the Trailways
bus. I stayed in New Orleans two weeks in one-room hotels for
bums that cost four dollars a night. I had the blues. I spent
most of my time in the French Quarter. For awhile I shared a
room with a fellow I met in Biloxi. Feeling uncomfortable, I
later got my own room. But I soon ran out of money and had to
call my wife and a female friend for money to get back to
Baltimore.
**Aunt Sal," a variant of Sally, the name of Mama’s
sister. The word "aunt" is often pronounce with the
clipped "aint." By the date of this letter, Aunt Sal
had moved off of South Freemont, I believe, into one of the new
low-rise project houses with her daughter Laura..
***Gwen was David’s estranged wife. I lived with her and
her girl friend without charge in Fort Washington for several
months after I came back from Africa. I was hired before I left
Jarratt for an adjunct position with the University of the
District of Columbia. I later got a room in Washington.
****At the writing of this letter, Mama was seventy-two years
old. By this time, she had been in retirement about seven years.
From 1948 until about 1976, she worked six days a week at
Jarratt Motel as a cook for dirt pay. Her starting pay in the
late 40s was less than $18 a week for six days work. Before then she and Daddy had
worked as sharecroppers for Luther Creath from about 1926. Mama
also cooked, washed, cleaned his house, and helped to raise his
children. She, Daddy, and their daughters lived on his farm at
least ten years sharecropping.
