Letter 22

September 14, 1983

Dear Son,

Just a few lines to give answer to your most Kind and Welcomed letter I received a few days ago. I was So glade to hear from you. I hope these Few lines will Find you Well in health also in mind. And you stop torturing your self about Bills. If you live you get them paid. Think about But try not and worry. You probably Find you a Friend after While. Then again Some time you Better off Be by your self. *

The rent not so Bad. But dont you think it right steep I think. Wouldn't it Be Better if you could Buy Some used furniture not too expensive. For $80 a month Count up For nine months. Still it want be yours.

Well it raining to night. We haven't had no rain For 3 months. Just showers. Every Body ask of you and send their love. Millard Stith died last Saturday.** They are burying him tomorrow which is the 14th Sept. All his children is home. Also Mr. Jim Givens is in hospital in Emporia. He got sick at Church. He Better now. Bell was by here today. She sent you her love.

You told me not worry. I do Because I love you. I all ways want the Best For you. So now, I am proud of you more. Every day. But I do want you to take Care of your self. Peter was here Sunday. He going to school now in Petersburg Va. I guess Bunk told you Michael and Chicken got a Job at restaurant in Emporia. David Just Call. Say he looking For you to Call or rite him.**** 

So it 10:30 pm I getting sleepy. I hope you can read this bad riten. All mistakes take love Bad hand riten For Kisses.

I love you

your Mother.

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 Commentary

*I did make a friend while I was in Monroe, a young woman named Ella Jean. She was a good old country girl and I loved her. We became quite a pair for awhile. I was quite fond of her. But as in other relationships, it was not a pairing made to last Yet it was hot and steamy, which made up for any other shortcomings. I do not think I ever had any serious intent of staying ever so far away from my people in Virginia.

**Millard Stith married Florence Wyche, sister of Evelyn and Christine Ford. All are daughters of Cary Wyche and sisters of Edler Wyche. I went to school with most of Millard’s children: Shirley, Peter, Melvin, Brenda. There were others, younger ones whom I did not know very well.

 ***Jim Givens was a deacon at Jerusalem Baptist Church and married to Miss Lula Bell who outlived him and still up and about today. Miss Lula Bell is Mama's best friend. She still drives and takes Mama to Emporia, a town in Greensville County about ten miles away south off I-95, to make groceries. They are both in their 90s.

****David, Annie’s oldest son, was living in Texas while I was in Louisiana. He had remarried and started another family. I never called. I had no interest in Texas. While living in New Orleans, I took a trip to San Francisco to see a young woman I met at a New Orleans club and stopped for a short period at the Houston airport for the plane to take on other passengers. That summer I had a rendezvous with that woman in Oakland whom I had thrilled for a night. Other than this airport experience, the closest I got to Texas occurred on the way to the Cane River area. A colleague at the university named Tom and I stopped at Cheyenne Lilly’s, a country and western bar in Shreveport, three hundred miles east of Dallas.