Panties Up Dress Down: Things My Mama Used to Say

By Deletta Gillespie

panties UP, dress DOWN is a collection of stories that convey how a mother converted her daughter's awkward and painful childhood experiences into teachable moments - and used them as opportunities to provide her with a lifetime of advice and guidance. Told from the daughter's perspective, panties UP dress DOWN is a verbal life instruction manual sprinkled with childhood angst, drama, and love.This edition differs from the stage/script version in that it includes snippets of wisdom from two additional family members - a grandmother and an aunt. From church services and mean girls to puberty, dating and beyond, these humorous and occasionally heartrending stories reveal the sometimes complicated and dynamic bonds of mother/daughter relationships, and how they shape future generations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deletta Gillespie
• Release date: Nov 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370181278

Deletta Gillespie

Deletta Gillespie is a native Oklahoman now residing in Maryland. She is a multidisciplinary performing and teaching artist, as well as a singer/songwriter, playwright, storyteller, and now, author!

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Jesus Christ

Expect the Best

Rome

…Too Much Religion

Nixon

Think for Yourself

There’s a hole!

Panties UP, Dress DOWN

Full-time job

What Is Meant For You to Have…

Once isn’t always and twice isn’t forever

Think for Yourself Again

Be a lady

Heifer, Call me back!

product photo

Dedication:

Lovingly dedicated to my Mama, Deltessa Gillespie.

Miss you Mama…

And to my brothers:

Estesvanico Bysshe Samilton

Ivor Maguel Samilton

(we made it!)

Thanks to…

My Aunts: Helen Agee, Phyllis Wrather, and Sammye Jo Vann. I love you all so much, and thank you for your love and support, and for always standing in the gap.

My maternal grandmother, Mayme Gillespie.

My Uncles Robert, Sylvester, and T.

To all my cousins and extended family wherever in the world you may be, I’m honored and blessed to call you family. Thank you for all the ways in which you have championed and strengthened me over the years.

JoAnn and Tommy Samilton for modeling unconditional love.

Acknowledgements

Sister Mary Murrihy of the Immaculate Conception School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) who encouraged me to write by gifting me with my first journal.

Reverend Michele Synegal and to my fellow writers of the Spiritual Empowerment Center’s Writing Group, where this idea grew into reality. I am eternally grateful for your ears, comments, and suggestions.

My family at The Spiritual Empowerment Center, Baltimore.

Clarence Kenney for being my ears during the editing process.

Aaron E. Thorne, II for your contributions to this project.

I am forever indebted to the following folks for helping me take this book to its stage version;

Janice Short, Derek Neal, thank you for your direction, sacrifices and support: Willie O. Jordan and Dr. Garey Hyatt of Coppin State University for assistance from the workshop production through the first performances.

Blessings to all.

Foreword…

My Mama and best friend, Deltessa Gillespie, transitioned on February 18, 2010. My brother Bysshe, a minister, had begun to prepare our mother's eulogy. He had decided on the title Eighty-Eight Keys of Life, and I agreed it was the perfect title.

Deltessa, or Del as Mama was affectionately called, was a phenomenal musician who learned to play eighteen instruments. She was in demand all over the region, and she played piano and organ in bands that backed some of the biggest names in music in the 1950’s and early ‘60’s, such as The Shirelles, The Ink Spots, and others. She was offered a recording contract with Capitol Records in 1964, but declined, stating that she wanted her children to grow up with their grandparents and other extended family. Mama even taught my step-father to play the drums so all the money from her gigs would come to our household. She understood the power of image, so nearly all of her stage outfits were custom-made. Mama was also a savvy business woman. There were times where I sat at the kitchen table as she negotiated contracts. In church on Sunday mornings she, as so many congregants would say, made the organ talk. One Christmas, she taught a choir full of non-music reading amateurs Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. The sense of accomplishment felt by each member of the choir was infectious.

She was a professional woman, but she didn’t neglect her duties as a wife and mother. She didn’t always attend the PTA meetings, but each night she made dinner and read bedtime stories to my brothers and me before slipping into her work clothes and out the front door. She kept us busy…with dance classes, drum lessons, library visits, sporting activities, and church. TV was limited to watching cartoons, the occasional sitcom, and anything on PBS. Mama loved watching the variety shows of the era; Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett, and Flip Wilson. On the odd Saturday night when she happened to be off, we watched Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw.

If we stepped out of line, our punishment might include washing down walls, scrubbing the kitchen floor, polishing silver, and dusting baseboards. When I got my first paycheck from my first job (thanks to Aunt Sammye), she took me to the bank, opened a passbook savings account for me, and taught me money basics; how much to write checks, how to budget, spend, save and to manage until the next pay day. What is especially remarkable about her is that she had delivered nearly all of her life lessons to me by the time I was twelve years old. Near my thirteenth birthday, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. From that point, her presence in my life was no longer a constant.

As my brother and I continued to prepare for her memorial service, we were overcome at the realization of how much we recalled and relied on the advice she’d given us. I thought about how her impact extended beyond our immediate family. Many times I’ve shared stories or a bit of wisdom given to me by my Mama. In these cases, the conversation would usually end with someone remarking, I wish I could’ve met your Mom. She sounds like an incredible person, and You were lucky to have had that kind of relationship with your Mom. I didn’t have that with my mother.

It had been several months since my Mama’s memorial service. I shared a tidbit of her wisdom about preparation with my acting class. After the class, a student asked: Professor, do you realize how much you talk about your Mother? It was at that moment that this book was born. I decided that I would share her ‘keys’ to life as often as possible.

I’m grateful to have the opportunity to share some of Mama’s life lessons with you in the pages of this book. I hope the reading of these stories blesses you as much as they blessed me