I haven’t posted in a while. Need
to. Anybody who reads this probably already knows I was born in 1939 in
Houston, Texas. I wouldn’t trade being a Texan for just about anything but
that’s another subject. Here’s what you don’t know. When I was 3 my mother got
pregnant with my little sister. Complications developed and she died 24 hours
after birth. It was something that would not amount to much today with
sonograms and modern medicine, but that was then, not now. Mom got to hold her,
and name her and later they buried her in a formal grave. All I remember is all the fuss in the house
and Mom and Dad finding a “domestic” to come take care of me. I’ve been lucky
all my life and this was some of the first of my luck. A lady showed up who may
have changed my life. Her name was Celia Williams, at her request we called her
Ciel. Pronunced Seal. Celia was Black, She wasn’t especially pretty Mom was a College grad, she had a degree in
home economics and decided to go to work in one of the many defense plants that
found a home in Houston. She became a quality inspector in a factory that made
binoculars and gunsights for the Navy. We only had my Dads company car so Mom
left the house at about 7AM, took the bus to a collection point where she was
bussed to the factory. Celia rode the bus from North Houston coming the
opposite way. She arrived about a half hour after Mom left. Dad waited for her
to show up and then hustled off to work. Then Celia went to work. She washed
and cleaned and cooked and made me walk the straight and narrow. I didn’t know
it at the time but her life had been a series of disappointments. She was
married young and kicked her husband out in the street when she caught him
being unfaithful. She was unable to have children so I became a surrogate son.
There’s no nickname for Glenn so because my middle name is Dean I became Denny
(gotta have a nickname in Texas). Ciel called me Mars Denny. When I prowled
around the wall outlets she’d say “”Mars Denny, you leave them alone, that
lectricity be dangerous. When I found out for myself she said “See what Ah tole
you, doan be doin that again” Then she would tousle my hair and head for the
kitchen to fix lunch. Which was something like ham and beans with
cornbread, She was there when I had my
tonsils out and when I toddled off to kindergarten. She was there when Mom got
pregnant again and my sister Valerie was born. When we moved to what was then
the suburbs Ceil found other work for a while. It was too far to come on the
bus. About a year after we moved Mom got a job running the kitchen at one of
the big hospitals and called Ciel with a more generous offer and she came back
to work for us. Mom worked until 7PM or so and my sister and I were old enough
to be on our own so Dad would get home from work, dinner would be ready, we
would drive Ciel to a bus stop downtown, go pick up Mom and and head for home.
This worked really well until 1953 when we came to California. I’m going to
gloss over some stuff, Mom and Dad split up in 1957-58, in 1959 I joined the
Coast Guard, while I was in boot camp Mom and my sister went back to Texas.
They hired Ciel back to keep house and in 1961 I had a chance to go visit.
Drove a car to Texas for friends, got to Houston on Wednesday, slept all day
and all night. Ciel was working two days a week, she got to the house about
10AM Thursday. Hadn’t changed a bit,
when she saw me she said “Mars Denny, you is all growed up” I wanted the worst
way to have her tousle my hair or hug me like she did when I was 5 but we both
understood our place in the system. I came back to California, Mom retired and
moved into an apartment. Really didn’t need a maid but kept Ciel coming 2 days
a week. When my sister complained about the money Ciel cost Mom said “She was
there when we needed her, now she needs us.”
That was Mom. I said I was lucky, a big part of my luck was being
surrounded by people with strong work ethics. Dad, Mom, my grandparents and a
modest, strong willed hardworking African American lady named Celia Williams.
She is responsible for a bunch of what I became. I don’t know if in their
morning coffee conversations Mom told her. I hope so.
