Back 2 my Roots....

Back 2 my Roots....

I was born in Bronzeville.....

I lived in the Ida B Wells extensions at
559 E Browning.... Apartment 409

The buildings were seven stories tall with ten apartments on each floor except the first floor.
So on Halloween, you could rack up all the candy you wanted.

It was enough to last you for a year

and if you went 2 all to the other buildings,

Please........

We had flowers and grass then... and in the playground,
I had a favorite swing on the side back.

I loved the 'jects....

We knew everybody in the building...

All the familes...

It was our community.... and we looked out for each other...

Reverend Allen lived on the first floor and through his Salvation Army works along with his family, he saved many souls. To honor their work, Browning Avenue added the name of the Allens.

Browning Ave runs for one block east and west on 35th place between Vincennes and Rhodes, just south of Doolittle School.

Memoirs of a Soul Food Junkie........

Friday Night Fish Fry

I remember my father playing the piano on Friday nights
and the neighbors would be cooking fresh fish......
the kind that they wrapped in newspaper from the fresh fish store.

It could be Catfish, Smelts, Perch, Oysters, Jack Salmon or swimp.....

I said it! Swimp (shrimp)......

Buffalo was my favorite but it had too many bones.

I remember ..........

Catfish, spaghetti and some Red Kool-Aide..
with some Louie Jordan playing
we had it made....
Saturday Night Fish Fry and Let the Good Times Roll
With a slice of yellow pound cake
Joy filled my soul...

With my daddy playing piano,
the neighbors would come from down the hall
They would make it into a party...
We would have a ball

On the holidays my mom would cook
Greens

and Ham

and Candied yams...

Blueberry cobbler that could knock you to your knees
Red beans & rice

or Black eye peas..

At the table

My dad was singing "baby, baby, please"....

Pass the

String beans with white potatoes

warm corn bread, fried green tomatoes

Succatosh and squash

Home-made gumbo, jambolya

Smothered chicken with rice

would set your soul on fire.......

Rice and gravy

with Smothered steak

Northern beans and navy

with some yellow corn cakes

Smoked neckbones

with some sauerkraut
Her pineapple upside-down-cake
would turn it out

Oh.. I could go on and on....

Let me stop now...

It's making me 2 hungry...

So the neighbors were coming 4 the music and the food...

getting together on a Friday nite to...let the good times Roll.

AA 6-29-08

Let the Good Times Roll by Louis Jordan

From the Chicago Tribune.......

Many Chicagoans know Ida B. Wells (born July 16, 1862) only as a name on a CHA housing project. And while that's appropriate, sheltering and finding jobs for the needy was one of her missions, Wells' greatest achievement was calling the world's attention to the scourge of lynching. A Southern journalist in exile for her crusade, the self-described "hothead" arrived in Chicago in 1893. She found plenty to do here: protesting black America's near-absence from the World's Fair, forming civic groups that fought racial injustice, helping organize the NAACP and the list goes on. (Tribune archive photo)