Down south in Alabama, there is a place called Phenix City just on the eastern side of the state, so close to the edge that it mostly falls into the state of Georgia. So close that it is in the eastern time zone since most people that have the pleasure of living there work across the state line, so they elected to be on eastern time. Phenix City, has had its share of scandals and dark secrets throughout the years and the one that happened in 1953 was no exception.
Now this was a little before my time, but my mother has told me numerous times about the year that her sister, Mable, came to stay with us the summer of 1953. Why she was there was really never explained to me as a kid, but as I grew older, I put two and two together. Well actually it had been one and one because there was a rumor of a third coming in eight to nine months.
The day Mable drove up in a taxi from Tuscaloosa, I remember the Coca-Cola thermometer on the porch said it was a sweltering 101 degrees and the humidity was so heavy that the sheets on the line had no chance to dry for a week. One thing about Mable, which I was told I absolutely could not call “Aunt Mable” because it made her feel old, was her blonde hair was her pride and joy. Mable was beautiful as I could see in all the old photographs that people had taken of her and her friends that seemed to always be around, especially on the weekends when Fort Benning, which was only 11 miles away, let the boys out for some leave. Her blonde hair and her “assets” made her a popular attraction to Phenix City. My mother said as long as Mable was around, we always had a supply of Coca-Colas in the fridge and cigarettes that my father would enjoy bumming off of the boys from the fort.
It was about the third week in July that things started to change according to my Mamma. Mable woke in the middle of the night and lost her dinner in the bathroom. She was sickly the entire week and no matter how much she was persuaded to eat or drink something, she just could not keep anything down. My Mamma had her suspicions but did not let on, she said, because Mable was her younger sister and had told her plenty of times before, that she had to live her own life and she knew she had to live it to the fullest.
Now that was about the time that the number of Coca-Colas in the fridge began to shrink and my father decided it was time to cut back on the smoking. Seems the amount of friends that came to visit Mable from the fort began to taper off, well, all except one, that my Mamma said she just didn’t care for. But Mable wanted him around as much as possible. His name was William Edward Anderson, which after doing some investigation about him, I thought was a pretty distinguished name for someone to just chop it off to “Bill”
Bill came around most every weekend, my Mamma said, and he and Mable would sit on the porch in the swing and talk for hours. The heat of summer seemed to take its toll on Mable. She was irritable, and as summer began to cool off in hopes of a cooler fall, Bill came by on Friday and announced that he was being sent to Korea to fight. Mable cried all weekend, and the weekend turned into a week and finally one day she stopped her tears. Just stopped and started living again, but she seemed to have a different “air” about her.
Mamma told me that Mable started volunteering for the Red Cross and any other war related thing she could find to do to occupy her time until Bill came home. Mamma failed to let me know, but I could tell by the pictures that Mable was getting a lot fuller in figure than she once was and I thought when I was younger that maybe she just ate more cause she was worried about Bill. But I later learned she was getting fuller in figure because of Bill. Mable was “in that way” my Mamma told me. Looking back now, I smile because the word pregnant could not be said out loud.
Now there were no Coca-Colas in the fridge and my father had all but stopped smoking. We had no visitors from Fort Bening anymore. Well, not until the day my Mamma opened the door when she heard a knock. Two officers from the fort came in the house looking grim. Mable just stood there as they delivered the news about Bill. It seemed William Edward Anderson, chopped down to “just Bill” was not coming to see Mable again. They turned and left after offering condolences and three people just stood there staring. My Mamma, my father and Mable.
Mamma finally decided to tell me everything after I had started to do some investigation into our family tree for a masters project. After I graduated from high school, I decided to go to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where I stayed with my Aunt Mable. Yes, I called her that as years came and went. We became close the years I lived there. I always felt a special connection to her and after she passed, my Mamma decided to own up to the truth.
Times were hard in 1953, especially for a single young mother and my Mamma and father, and Mable, decided that she could not raise a child alone especially when she lived where there was no family around. So Mamma took the baby and Mable left. She never came around much, my Mamma said, because it was hard for her to see her baby boy, knowing that she had done the best she could do.
So here I stand beside her tombstone, my Mamma and me and father. I have tears in my eyes as I realize how lucky I was having two Mamma’s, one standing beside me and one watching over me, probably sipping a Coca-Cola in heaven. This was my summer of 1953…
A View From Bogaville 