Hattie Was Diagnosed in 1963

1 Hattie was diagnos ed in 1963, the same year President Kennedy was shot. Hattie almost died in 2008, the same year President Obama, the new President Kennedy, was ele cted. Now, Hattie is about to be evicte d from church, just when the Stimulus plan passed under the leadership of the very president Hattie was marching to see and Hattie voted to elect, is supposed to help her. The first Hattie was my big sister. Hattie wa s beautiful. Every one loved Hattie. She was the sister that chan ged my diapers, re al cloth diapers. She was the sister who washed my diapers. She was the sister that gave me my first bath, and the earliest bath that I remember. Let me tell you about that bath. I was proba bly four. I might have been e ven younger. We were in the kitchen , before the hot wood-burning stove . Hattie was giving my baby sister and I a bath. My baby sister was ma ybe two and one half years old. Hattie hea ted a large b ucket of water on the wood stove. She put the bucked of hot water on the floor. She then had to get cold wa ter from the pump on the back porch to put in the hot wate r to cool it. She needed to make it cold enough so that it would not burn us. As she told us that she had to get water from the p ump, she also told us not to to uch the tub of h ot water. She left the room. Now, it is almost a picture in slow motion. You know what ha ppen next. Not me, but my baby sister, raised her foot, tilted over the bucket, and the scalding water, spilled out of the bucket, on top of her foot. She screa med!!!!! Trauma!!!!!! My siste r was burned to the bone. Flesh sea red by steaming, s calding water. Bone exposed. My mother took her to the local midwife/nurse. She prayed. Wrapped her foot in ban dages, rags really. Put some ointment and salve on it. The physical wounds eventually healed, the traumatic wou nds, the psychological pain, remained. Not only did my baby sister have scars, my sister, Hattie had scars, and I had scars. Life was never the same. In 1960 my big sister, Hattie Marie, was marching. Hattie was a celebrated musician. She played the saxophone and the p iano. She was in Dillard H igh Schools marching band. . She played in church and she played in the club. In fact she was one of the original members of the Dave Bryant Five . The Dave Bryant Five was the opening act for th e Dave Bryant Playboy s Club. Yet, her most significant march was the marching in the streets and sit-ins at the lunch counters and the d ifferent busine sses to end segregation in our little city of Goldsboro, NC. One experie nce, Hattie had while participa ting in the marches and sit-ins, was re peated constantly b y my parents. It occurred after a march and d uring the sit-in at Scotts Barbecue. Scott, the owner of Scotts Barbecue, hit her in the head. This story was told because Scott was a Black man, one of the few Blacks who owned a busi ness. Scott was different. Scotts business was neither like Hamilton

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Hattie Was Diagnosed in 1963