* My resignation, some may think, was thoughtless of my career
and my responsibilities and obligations to Mama. That my be true.
God will be the judge. I was out of work, for six months, until my
unemployment check ended. I then became a substitute teacher in
Baltimore public schools, mostly middle schools. That was a crazy
job. It was less teaching than acting as a security cop, keeping
the classroom orderly. But it all helped to pay the bills until
something better came along. I treated it as learning experience.
I thought schools were similar to my own personal experiences as a
student. I was wrong.
**Rudolph Speed was married to Nanny B. Speed who had been a
teacher at the old Jefferson Elementary school. She died and Mr.
Speed married a much younger woman and fathered a child in his
late seventies. He made a many an old man proud in Jarratt of what
age and money could accomplish. He must have been in his late
eighties when he died. As I understand it, he left his young wife
and daughter well off. They lived across the tracks that was once
restricted to whites only.
***. I am uncertain about the reference to Theresa, my sister.
Maybe she had just gotten married.
****I had started going to church again. This time at New
Shiloh under the influence and suggestion of Mary Spriggs, a woman
who was associated with 1199 and was a member of New Shiloh. The
last time had been in the summer of 1987 when I attended revival
services with Miss Lula Bell Givens, Mama’s best friend. That
summer I went with her to Hunting Quarter Baptist for a revival
sermon by a young preacher. It was an awful bit of entertainment.
Rather than the classical Negro sermon, he followed the new style
of being a cheerleader for God, begging for agreement after every
phrase. Worse, he was long-winded (about two hours). He was
excessive. After he walked the pews, I walked out. I regretted I
had to abandon Miss Lula Bell. But that kind of religious
entertainment is too much for me to bear. At New Shiloh I met
Reverend Harold Carter and was impressed by his by the Prayer
Tradition of Black People. I attended his church for about a
year and again became disenchanted with the Christian church.
