Now, I left everyone hanging with our arrival to Snow Hill Maryland. I need to back up just a little bit. While we were visiting my cousins in Florida, we spoke to John's nephew, Napolean, in Maryland. It turns out that he had taken a whole three week vacation! He thought that we were going to visit Maryland for the whole three weeks! SO, we offered to fly him into Florida and ride back up to Maryland with us. Since he was only waiting on us to show up, he accepted the offer. We picked him up at the Jacksonville airport on our way out of Florida.
It was my first time meeting him, so I didn't know what he looked like to look for him....LOL! I had talked to him on the phone on several occasions and felt like I knew him already. We had a wonderful time "going home" to Snow Hill with him.
Snow Hill, Maryland is where I got caught up and lost in our vacation. It was where John was born and raised. He left at 18 and never went back, other than to visit his Mom, while she was living. Any trip back after that was only to attend funerals of close family members. So, this visit was truly a visit and a chance for him to see people that he hadn't seen in 30-40 years.
As we approached downtown, we came upon the old house that belonged to John's family for many, many years. His brother, Tommy lived in it and sold it, not too long ago. It will be restored for historical purposes. I was so looking forward to going downtown to the Julia A. Purnell Museum. John's mother was a midwife and she delivered most of the people there in Snow Hill that we spoke to. John's brother, Tommy donated her bag and tools that she used, to the museum. It's not a large building and we were told that if we didn't see her things, that they were in storage. They change the items around each year because they have so many things. As it turned out, her things weren't there this time.
We spent more than an hour just walking around downtown. John would remember the area and tell me all about it. He spoke with the lady at the hardware store and reminisced about some of the people there. John remembered her father, fondly. As we continued our walk, we came upon an old pool hall. Napolean told us about how one of John's friend, now owned and ran it. It wasn't open while we were there. We continued our walk and Napolean happened to turn around to see John's friend, pull up in front of the pool hall.....LOL! John made it a point to run back and see him, if only for a quick chat.
I could see John starting to really get into his hometown visit. THAT was enjoyable for me to see! I was busy snapping pictures.
Next, John mentioned a lady that he remembered as a young boy, to Napolean. Napolean said, "she lives right over here, still, on the next corner." Sure enough! They were so happy to see each other! John was surprised to see that she had grown children....no one had ever mentioned that to him in the past. Sweet, Sweet lady!
Downtown, Snow Hill, where a lot of the blacks live is still as poor as it was when he was living there. Nothing much has changed there. OH.....they do have some sidewalks now. That was something that he noted.
As I looked around and saw field after field of corn and soy beans, it was then that I realized why John had left and never moved back. It's just not him. He joined the Army at 18 and began to grow away from what his life was. He wanted something more and different. I would say, California is different....LOL!
Napolean had a friend that had just moved back into the area, Bev. She was a wealth of information!! Very enjoyable to be around, so we invited her to come along with us and hang out. John would ask her questions about different people in the area. I don't think she was ever stumped for an answer.
We went and stayed with John's brother for one night. He was on his way out of town for a family gathering on his wife's side .....going to North Carolina. He bought a large piece of property with a house on it. It also came with a graveyard. Two people are buried there from the 1800s. He has built a picket fence around it to keep everyone from walking on them.
The next day we went to Ocean City Boardwalk.....wow....was the wind blowing there! We had a nice day, but we were ready to get on our way as we had some more stops to make.
We stopped in a town called Salisbury, Maryland to see another one of John's friends, Elmer. He called John a few months back. He had ran into John's brother, Tommy and got our phone number. He called and told John that the last time they had seen each other was back in 1957, they were in Europe! Ahem....that's the year I was born! Anyway, we got to see him and his wife. Great people and a memory like you wouldn't believe!!!!
I just noticed how long this entry is. I will take a break and start back up.
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