Years ago, my grandparents got some new neighbors on their very normal and unremarkable street in Fort Worth, Texas. Two women whom I dont recall ever seeing moved in next door. My grandparents called them The Girls. The Girls would check on the old couple, run errands for them, bring things they might need. The Girls were great neighbors, and my grandparents loved them. They were quiet and friendly and helpful. Both of my grandparents were born before World War I. My grandmother grew up in a sharecropping family. She picked cotton as a child. She told about the first time she ever saw an airplane; her brother pulled over their horse-drawn wagon to let the car coming up from behind pass, but instead the airplane flew over, and she marveled. She was raised in a very religious household. Her father was a some-time preacher, fire and brimstone and wrath and repentance. She raised her family in the Southern Baptist Church. She loved her some Jesus. My grandfather was raised by his widowed mother and older sister. His father died when he was just 18 months old. He never made it past 8th grade, but managed to carve out a career in bookkeeping for a local chain of grocery stores. He served stateside during WWII. He was old fashioned but gentle, with an easy laugh, but he was also no-nonsense. And he, too, was a rather conservative Christian. I dont know if my grandparents ever really understood about The Girls. I dont know if the middle generation ever tried to explain it to them. My grandmother once remarked how nice it was that they found each other to share a house with since they were both grown women. I suspect she viewed them a lot like the characters in the 1980s sitcom Kate and Ally. The truth is, there wasnt anything they needed to understand. Because anything past the nice, friendly, caring, helpful, great neighbors they were had nothing at all to do with any of us. I sometimes wonder how much love and friendship they could have missed out on if a silly prejudice had been allowed to cloud their hearts.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:27:06 +0000
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