Dr. Harry Irving, an African American in his autobiography Uncle Harry's Stories, Looking Back Blackly And Proudly, Growing up in America tells about his great grandparents, who were slaves and his parents Louise and James Irving, his father was illiterate and his mother who only had a fifth grade education, raised nine children. Dr, Irving attended racially segregated public schools in the 1940s and the 1950s in his native state of West Virginia. He served honorably in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Dr. Irving earned his AA degree (1959) Los Angeles City College, BA (1962) and MA (1972) California State University, Los Angeles, and his Doctorate degree (1990) Pepperdine University.

Uncle Harry's STORIES

LOOKING BACK BLACKLY AND PROUDLY GROWING UP IN AMERICABy Harry R. Irving

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2012 DR. HARRY R. IRVING, Ed. D.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-2130-6

Contents

Acknowledgement.....................vIntroduction........................viiPreface.............................xiChapter 1...........................1Chapter 2...........................4Chapter 3...........................8Chapter 4...........................11Chapter 5...........................14Chapter 6...........................16Chapter 7...........................18Chapter 8...........................20Chapter 9...........................21Chapter 10..........................26Chapter 11..........................28Chapter 12..........................30Chapter 13..........................32Chapter 14..........................36Chapter 15..........................40Chapter 16..........................43Chapter 17..........................45Chapter 18..........................47Chapter 19..........................49Chapter 20..........................52Chapter 21..........................54Chapter 22..........................56Chapter 23..........................59Chapter 24..........................62Chapter 25..........................65Chapter 26..........................68Chapter 27..........................70Chapter 28..........................77Chapter 29..........................79Chapter 30..........................83Chapter 31..........................88Chapter 32..........................90Chapter 33..........................93Chapter 34..........................97Chapter 35..........................98Chapter 36..........................100Chapter 37..........................103Chapter 38..........................105Chapter 39..........................108Chapter 40..........................110Chapter 41..........................114Chapter 42..........................117

Chapter One

Looking back, blackly, and proudly; let me enthusiastically and delightfully begin, by taking you on a journey back in time; remembering, revisiting and reliving some of the experiences and adventures, good and bad, that I have encountered in my life. Hope you enjoy.

First of all, let me serenely begin with a verse taken from one of my favorite songs, "Country Roads, take me home to the place I belong, West Virginia", by John Denver. Starting with my birth on planet earth and traveling up to the present, as a belated Christmas present to my parents, James Edward Irving and Louise Irving, I was born on December 28, 1933, in a small coal mining community in Laing, West Virginia.

Regressing back in time, the town of Laing, West Virginia, had a population of approximately 1,000 residents in 1933. This small coal mining community of Laing was located in a hollow, called Cabin Creek, approximately 60 miles east of the Capitol of the state West Virginia, Charleston.

Laing was accessible by a one way in and a one way out roadway and railroad. Cabin Creek Hollow consisted of about fifty different communities besides Laing. Laing was built around a coal mine, about 200 coal company houses, a company grocery store. In the community there were a black Baptist church, and a white Baptist church; however, there weren't a police or fire stations or a public library. Consolidated, separate white and black schools were school bus rides away.

At Laing, the coal miners who mined the coal one mile deep under the ground for the coal company, rented their houses, shopped, and bought food, clothing and furniture from the coal company's store; owning their "Souls to the Company Store" (Loretta Lynn 1980, Movie ("Coal Miner's Daughter"). In my opinion, this form of exchange for goods for services, enslavement, could be theoretically compared with sharecropping, that African Americans were forced to engage in during and after slavery.

Incidentally, the Laing coal mine played out in the late 1950's, mortally wounding Laing, WV, as she lay on her death bed, gradually, families one by one moved away. Unoccupied wooden houses, (including the house that I was born in), the company store, and the churches one by one were consumed for heating fuel.

Thus, today, Laing, West Virginia, an apocalypse caused by the demise of the coal mine, no longer exists, nothing but trees, bushes, and weeds (Gone With the Wind). Living proof, officially, Laing, WV, has been geographically eradicated from Planet Earth; she is no longer listed on current maps or GPS.

Chapter Two

Now let me turn my attention to my family, my dad was illiterate, I remember, that he would sign his paycheck with an X and my mom only had a fifth grade education.

My father had six brothers, Uncles, Howard, Frank, Richard, Virgil, Wilbur, and Ben, one sister, Aunt Leila (Nanny).

My mother had two brothers, Uncles William and Raymond.

My mother got married to James Irving, my father, when she was 24 years of age. My father was 26. My parents had nine children, seven boys and two girls. Their children were spaced apart, a baby arriving approximately every 2 1/2 years.

I was their eighth child. My mother was 42 years of age when I was born and 44 when my brother Kenneth was born.

My mom said, along with my brothers and sisters, I was born at home, a natural birth, (according to the records kept, 95% of births occurred at home, not in the hospitals) a natural birth and fortunately not a breech birth, which could have endangered my mother's life and mine also.

During those days; most expecting mothers didn't have prenatal visits with a doctor.

As my head emerged from my mother's vaginal opening, with the assistance of the community midwife, Ms. Carter, I now imagine me began singing and happily crying, "I'm Coming Out, I want the World To Know ... (Song, Miss Diana Ross) and joyfully declaring, I'm sick and tired of that nine months of uterine confinement, Free At Last! Free At Last! Thank God Almighty! (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).

Oops, Mom thanks for not aborting me (Pro-Choice v. Right to Life) and choosing "Right to Life" and giving birth to me.

Before Roe v Wade (1973) abortions were totally illegal in the United States; however illegal abortions were performed and many women died from such abortions.

Family planning, Planned Parenthood (1976) contraceptives (1965) such as birth control pills, spermicides, and diaphragms, and IUDs were not available, only the condom was available, but infrequently used, in that men claimed that it took the enjoyment out of sex. In addition vasectomies and tubal ligations were not medically known.

According to my mother, I was a healthy breastfed baby; however when I was around about six months of age, I developed pertusis, whooping cough. One evening my whooping cough became severe and I stopped breathing. She had giving me up as dead, fortunately, my oldest brother, Robert performed artificial respiration on me and restored my breathing.

Chapter Three

The following below are the names, gender and year of birth of my parent's offspring:

Name Gender YOB

1. Edna Female 1918 Deceased 2. Robert Male 1919 Deceased 3. Clarence Male 1921 Deceased 4. Milton Male 1923 Deceased 5. Willard Male 1925 Deceased 6. Oliver Male 1927 Deceased 7. Jean Female 1930 8. Harry Male 1933 9. Kenneth Male 1936

Now, let's have a little sense of humor, to rectify or regain our African heritage, I'm going to replace our European first names with African-American names, unlike Malcolm X, who replaced his last name Little with an X and became Malcolm X rather than Malcolm Little. Oops, My mother would wake up in her grave; if she found out that I renamed her children from English names to African names.

Name African Meanings

1. Edna Latisha Great Joy 2. Robert Shaquille Pretty 3. Clarence Tavarius Misfortune 4. Milton Jarmar Handsome 5. Willard Vashon God is Gracious, Merciful 6. Oliver Zeshawn God is Gracious, Merciful 7. Jean Moesha Drawn Out of the Water 8. Harry Roshaun Shining Light 9. Kenneth Taurean Strong as a Bull

Incidentally, recent studies have uncovered job discrimination among applicants that have African-American first names as compared with those that have European first names (Marianne Bertrand and Sendhi Mullainathan, (July 2001-January 2002)

Chapter Four

I was a 1930s Great Depression baby and World War II child. When the war started on December 7, 9141, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president.

Television was unknown to us, so all we heard on the radio all long that day was his Declaration of War speech.

Two of my brothers were in World War II, Robert and Milton. The military was segregated during World War II, all black and all white units. I remember my brothers sending pictures of their black companies, home to us.

When I was growing up during World War II and until I was about 12, my dad was mostly an absentee father, not by choice, but due to his job of working on the railroad, approximately 60 miles from home; he maintained his separate living quarters away from home. When he became chronically ill and disabled and he had to permanently leave his railroad job and come home for assisted living care.

A two-car train, one coach and the other, a U.S. Mail and baggage car, with a steam engine, fueled by coal served the Cabin Creek Hollow. There was also a transit bus that served the hollow, hourly, from 6am to 10 pm. The train made two daily trips from Cabin Creek junction up in and out of the hollow seven days a week.

At the end of the evening run, the train returned to a town, called Coal River, WV, which was about sixty miles from Laing.

Dad's nightly duties were sweeping the trash from the floor and emptying trash containers in the passengers coach car and periodically shoveling coal into the belly of the steam engine, maintaining the fire from around 8pm to 5 am, preparing the train for its early morning departure from Coal River, over the mountains and through a tunnel in the mountains to Cabin Creek Hollow, around 6 am.

In that he worked seven days a week, except for holidays, dad came home twice a month on Sunday mornings and would leave that same day, Sunday evening back to his job away from home.

During the extended absence of my dad from home due to his employment; I remember, one time Clarence, one of my older brothers, whom will stigmatized as being the "Black Sheep" of the family, got drunk and trashed the house, throwing chairs up against the walls and damaging the furniture.

When dad came home on one of his bimonthly brief visits and learned about Clarence's inappropriate behavior; he got out his hog killing rifle, pointed it at Clarence's head and said to Clarence, I don't want this kind of behavior out of you in my house, do you understand me, and I'll blow your brains out of your head. Nervously we plead with dad to lay the rifle down, he obliged, but he reiterated, "I'll blow the brains out of you head" if this happens again. Clarence, remorsefully, said: "Dad I'm sorry for what I did and I promise I will never do this ever, again". And fortunately, he never did it again. Thank God this did not end up in a ("Marvin Gay, 1984"), fatal episode in Marvin Gaye's Father shooting his son).

When this episode occurred, we, (mother and eight of her nine children) lived in a four-bedroom house. My older sister, Edna became pregnant at the age of sixteen, got married and lived apart from the rest of the family.

Hence, after my father admonished Clarence for his deplorable behavior; peace, tranquility, and harmony prevailed in our home environment; even in the absence of our father.

Chapter Five

My sister, Edna, had eight children six daughters and two sons. Incidentally my sister, Edna and my mom were pregnant at the same time and I became a proud uncle at the age of six months. My brother, Robert, married and separated, had one daughter, my brother, Clarence, never married, no children, my brother, Milton, married and divorced, had a daughter and one son, my brother Willard, married and separated had five children, three daughters and two sons, my brother, Oliver (Doll) married had one son, my sister, Jean, married, had one daughter, myself, Harry, never married, no children, and lastly, my baby brother Kenneth (Rit) single had one son.

My other siblings' offspring are featured below:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Not having any children of my own, I embraced my eleven nieces and eight nephews, as if, they were my own children.

Chapter Six

As to my grandparents, I knew both of my grandmothers; however, I never knew my grandfathers. My dad's mother, grandma Katie, looked like a white lady; her mother was a white woman. We called her "Big Mama".

Every summer when I was in grade school, and when school was out, my baby brother, Kenneth and I had to spend the summer with my Dad's mother, Big Mama and her daughter, my dad's sister, my aunt Lelia, who live on a farm in the state of Virginia.

We traveled by train, powered by a steam engine, generated from the combustion of coal. In those days the train wasn't air- conditioned, thus we had to raise the windows to allow refreshing cool air to come in to combat the interior coach heat, but also allowing cinders from the fire burning in the coal engine that was pulling the train to flow into the train. Frequently I would cry out, Mom there's a cinder in my eye! She would flush my eye out with water and say boy are you alright? I would reply, yes ma'am. Overall the overnight train ride was full of fun and enjoyment. Mom would pack a lunch of fried chicken, and delicious homemade rolls, and a homemade yellow cake with chocolate icing.

My daddy's brother, Uncle Frank, would be patiently waiting in his horse and buggy at the train station to pick us and take us to Big Mama's house, about a two mile ride. When we got off the train, me with my little classy seven years old self, felt embarrassed and too proud and refused to get in the buggy, I was anticipating to be picked up in an automobile.

They didn't beg me to get in, but started pulling off without me. I started crying and screaming, Uncle Frank stopped the horse drawn buggy and I ran and happily go into the buggy

Upon arrival at my dad's mom, Big Mama's house, she would attempt to kiss me on my lips.

I was too embarrassed, and hesitated to do so,

* I said to my mother,

* Mom, I don't want to kiss this white woman.

* She replied shut up boy; this is your grandmother,

* You kiss her boy.

I went ahead and reluctantly kissed her; letting my grandmother kiss me on my lips. Today, in retrospective, I would be elated to do so.

CH7[ When I was in high school, being much older, in the summer of 1950, my mother, my brother, Kenneth, and my sister, Jean and I went to visit my mom's mother, my grandma, Adeline, who lived in Pittsburg. Pennsylvania.

While there, that summer, at 16 years of age, one evening, around seven o'clock, on my own, I decided to go alone by myself across town to a movie. I saw two movies, double features. The movies ended around midnight. Upon leaving the movie theater, I waited for the streetcar to take me back to grandma's house.

In the wee hours of that morning, standing scared there alone waiting for the streetcar to hurry up and come; two white guys, who appeared to be in their early twenties approached me, one of them pulled a long switch blade knife from his pants' pocket and flipped it open, one of them said boy, what are you doing out here on these streets? I nervously stuttered I just came from the movies. I was about a distance of 25 feet from them.

I macroscopically kept a keen eye on them and I said to myself, if they come any closer to me, I would run like hell to get away from them, in order to prevent them from harming me.

Fortunately, a police patrol car approached the area where we were standing and I vividly recall one of them say there's the heat (police) and seeing them leaving the scene hurriedly. What a relief! And I said Thank God! Almighty God!

The streetcar arrived shortly. I got back safely to my grandma's house around one am in the morning. I said to myself, I would never do anything like that again.

When I nervously stepped into grandma's house, around two o'clock in the morning; everybody was still waiting up on me to come home. My mom angrily said, boy where have you been? I embarrassingly said, mom I went across town to the movies. She said boy, why didn't you tell anyone where you were going? I said I don't know. She scolded me and made me promised that I wouldn't do anything like that again. I gladly agreed.

I don't recall, if there were curfew laws back then; however, today, I strongly encourage our youth to abide by such laws, it's not that people in authority, parents, teacher, and local law officials want to be too strict on you, and deny you, your freedom; but they love you and most of all are concern about your safety. ]CH7

CH8[ Getting back to grandparents, I suspected that my mom's father was a white man in that my mother was fair skinned, what we called high yellow; even she did not know her father. When I was kid, I would ask her about her father, my grandpa, and she would say shut your mouth boy. I longingly and rightfully wanted to know my grandparents; I felt that I had an insatiable right to know my grandparents. I did see a picture of my dad's father; he supposedly was half Indian and half black, who had passed on. Later on in life, I verified through other relatives, indeed my grandfather my mother's dad was a white man, as I had earlier suspected.

I empathize with children who do not know both of their biological parents, fortunately, both of my biological parents and my maternal and paternal grandmothers were a part of me in my growing up years; however, let me reverberate, regrettably, I did not get to know both my maternal and paternal grandfathers. ]CH8

CH9[ Here let me mention what we did for recreation, children games, and play; we didn't have Nintendo, TV nor a lot of books to read except for comic books. As children ages 6 to 12 we had Sack Races and played Hide and Seek, Jack rocks, Rope skipping, Marbles, Hopscotch, Leapfrog, Drop the Handkerchief, Dodge Ball, Football, Softball and Basketball. We also played with Yo-yos and the Paddle ball toys. In that we were not allowed to swim in the white community swimming pool, we swam in the old dirty creek where the coal company had used the water to wash coal in addition there were Water Moccasin snakes in the creek. I was afraid to go into that nasty creek and thus, I never learn how to swim.

My teenage recreation included going to the movies, playing cards, checkers, dominoes, and dancing.

(Continues...) ]CH9

Excerpted from Uncle Harry's STORIESby Harry R. Irving Copyright © 2012 by DR. HARRY R. IRVING, Ed. D.. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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