A Journey Back in Time: My Story Book

By Vildred C. Tucker-Dawson

A Journey Back in Time presents a collection of thirteen stories about love, hate, greed, redemption, freedom, peace, loneliness, the loss of a loved one, interracial relationships, and acceptance. Each story is relevant to the experiences of African Americans from as far back as the 1860s through the present day. These stories emerged through the research of author Vildred C. Tucker-Dawson into her family history. She discovered that her ancestors had a unique way to allow future generations to connect with the pastthrough these stories, handed down from generation to generation.

Several of the short stories are based upon accounts told by the authors elders of her great-grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Pugh-Scott, whom she never met. Sarah and her son, who were both of a mixed racial background, faced challenges throughout their lives that did not prevent them from striving for better lives for their families.

Presenting real perspective in the form of fiction, A Journey Back in Time offers food for thought to both youth and adults on African American experiences and history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Nov 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781426942235

Vildred C. Tucker-Dawson

A college graduate, Vildred Tucker-Dawson lives and works in California. As a child she lived the Lower Bottoms, Oakland, California; in high school, her love of writing served as an escape from the real world. This is her first book.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A special acknowledgement goes out to the love of my life, Mr. David Wayne Simpson. I love you for being there and understanding my reasoning for writing these stories. To my children, Allen, Earl, Nancy and Erica for listening when I needed to read these stories out loud. To my dearest niece Karima for being so understanding and also being that sounding board I needed. I love you all for defining your own destiny, not allowing anyone to stifle your dreams, staying true to yourselves, and for not allowing anyone to take your joy!

You all remind me of ME and that’s why I love you all so very much!

Enjoy these stories and create some stories of your own!

Disclaimer

All thirteen stories in this book,

A JOURNEY BACK IN TIME

My Story Book

Are fictional and are not intended in any way to insult, harm or hurt any person who may have had similar experiences. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For Information contact [e-mail]

PREFACE

When I originally came up with the idea of writing short stories the intent was to delve on the dark side in an effort to hook a person in to reading my stories. After working on this project for several months I finally decided that I had something to say. The issues I would talk about would be a combination of folk stories from the past and the transformation of time from one era to another.

As I began to explore the various ways I could present this compilation of stories to my family my first thoughts were that they would try to find fault but after speaking with my brother he told me to go for it. He explained that not all people would enjoy my style of writing but if I enjoyed what I wrote I should continue to put my thoughts and opinions on paper and not worry about what others would think.

The stories I am presenting are of joy and redemption, love and happiness, peace verses confinement while others came to me during my daily ride to work. Each day as I proceeded on my journey to work I listened to a wide variety of music for many reasons. I listened to rap music because the messages within the rap songs spoke to a younger generation thus I have a better understanding about the plight of my grandsons. I listen to spiritual music because as a Christian who loves and embraces my spirituality I have discovered that the words in each spiritual song I heard revealed a personal message for me. And because of my love for music I found a way to intertwine my stories with the music I hear daily. And because of all of the above I finally found a way to combine my stories with the day to day situations that people from my past may have experienced and perhaps the people of my future will understand the messages coming from my past.

One other reason, I decided to embark on this venture is because after conducting research on my family history as a member of Ancestry.Com I discovered that my ancestors had discovered a unique way to allow their future generations to connect to the past and reconnect the family members no matter where they were and which state they would eventually end up living in. For that reason all of these stories have significant meaning to me and my family.

Finally, although my parents are both deceased I am now the grandmother of many and the great grandmother of one. This book is also dedicated to my family’s future generation. It is my desire that they learn the meaning of family and take that leap of faith in order to discover the many experiences of life I know are in their future. To my great grandson, Mark Anthony Johnson Jr. whom I refer to as Thankful I hope when you are all grown up you will understand the meaning of being great. It is because of you that I am so happy to announce my main title as being Great; and everyone knows that being great is the highest accomplishment in the world. Therefore, I am truly thankful to have you in my life little Thankful and I sincerely hope you explore the names as I have and learn the importance of family heritage as well as its value. You have got to understand where you came from in order to understand where you are going in life.

Table of Contents

As the Hammer Dropped

Black Coffee

Bones In The Sky

From The Crack House To The School House

JUKE In JULY

Mama Died, Ada Killed Sam

One Slave Jumped Over Board

Seven Roses For Mama

Thankfuls’ Tweezers’

The End

The Fifty First State

The Lost Gate

Three Little Piglets And Areeba, The Lovely Pig-ga-rou

AS THE HAMMER DROPPED

BY: VILDRED C. TUCKER-DAWSON

As the hammer dropped after receiving and reading aloud the judgment, the Dope Dealer lowered his head as if the heavy jewelry he once wore was now weighting his neck down.

The entire court room fell deafly silent as twenty five years to life was barked over and over through what seemed like a mega phone as the judge read the verdict aloud. For the murder of 16 year old Lamont (Dirty-Lamont) Franks, twenty five years to life, for the possession and sale of Heroin, twenty five years to life, for conspiracy, twenty five years to life for assault and the kidnapping of Lamont; twenty five years to life. Twenty five years to life was stated over and over again. There were a total of ten charges, four of the charges carried twenty five years to life all by their self.

Shit; for good measures the remaining six charges were throw in to continue the humiliation of a young black brother. On the other hand, bull-shit like possession of a fire arm, pimping and pandering, possession of marijuana and a bunch of other small time charges were added even-though there was no evidence to support or substantiate the states complaints during his original arrest. In addition, tax evasion, operating a criminal enterprise, fraud; you name it, were thrown in just for the hell of it.

There was no doubt as to the confusion in regard to a few of the charges. Hell! Everyone in the court room may have been wondering, what person would be bold enough to file income taxes and openly report to the federal government that their source of income comes from selling dope? Wow, my name is la la la; my annual income is $100,000.00 as a big time Drug Dealer? As for that charge, that was a big ass joke.

However, as the trial got close to an end, most of the little bull shit charges were dropped. Nevertheless, he still wound up with four twenty five year life sentences.

The state failed to recognize that he too had been wronged as a reason for his criminal activities. Although he believed his actions were somewhat justifiable, the court felt otherwise. The court openly refused to acknowledge the assault and kidnapping involving his family as a valid reason for his doing what he had done.

Additionally, the charges against his other victim and co-defendants were all dropped upon their agreement to testify against him. Hell no, there wasn’t any honor among thieves; shit, his co-conspirators would do what they had to do in order to remain free. Besides, the main focus was on him and him alone; it didn’t matter that some of his actions were taken because his family members had been wronged; nor did it matter that his co-defendants were just as guilty as he; the court would show the Dope Dealer no leniency.

On the other hand, because the jury became hopelessly dead locked on some of the other charges I must assume that the complaint the dealer had was somewhat valid.

Needless to say, it was what it was and the dealer was going away forever. So, I leaned over and asked his lawyer if the sentences could be run concurrent and he made a motion to petition the judge for that request but the judge replied by rambling off a series of numbers and government codes.

After which, I heard his lawyer turn and inform him that only the state charges can be run concurrent and that he’d have to serve 50% of his time with good behavior in order to be considered for early release. That was the good news. The bad news was that one of the twenty-five to year life sentences was a federal charge and the government would spare no expense to prosecute his black-ass through the end of time. To make matters worse if he didn’t plead guilty to the deal he had made with the state some of his federal charge agreements would be in jeopardy. Therefore, after pleading guilty he turned and smiled at his family.

Since the Drug Dealer’s family had been forewarned about the outcome they realized that the situation would be bleak and sad so they all dressed in black as if this were a funeral. As for the dealer, he mustered up the strength and turned back to face the judge as the realization of his predicament sank in more deeply.

Suddenly his mother stood up with tears in her eyes; she spoke out attempting to assure the judge that her son was a good person and that he deserved leniency. The judge quickly motioned his mom to be quiet and be seated. After thanking her, the jury and the People of California, the trial was over. Thus, the young black brother rose to his feet and allowed the police to secure the chain around his waist in order to ensure that the handcuffs were tightly in place. Upon its completion he was led to the back room where the rest of the guilty inmates were held in temporary restraints.

Once he was in the room behind the court he spoke to some of the other inmates in the room only to discover that they too had been sentenced to life in prison. At that point he realized that he and each and every man in that room pretty much knew the cards that they had been dealt were losing hands.

All of the prisoners located behind the closed doors beckoned to each other one after the other we are all too young for this shit. They never imagined that their time on this earth would be in bondage; hell, their freedom was relatively short lived outside of prison walls because they were all very young. They knew they were well and alive but for all intent and purposes they may-as-well have been dead; because life behind bars would more than likely be a nonexistent life. But the dealer still had major concerns about the faith of his family once he was sent to prison. What would happen to his son, and would his sister wander the streets without his presence. What about his daughter? Would men take advantage of her? I’m sure he wondered what would become of them but it wasn’t for him to decide; he would no longer be there to protect them.

Once again he took notice of his problem and he finally realized that because of his actions all of the amenities his family had once enjoyed and afforded would be gone forever. The homes, the cars, the jewelry the money, everything was gone. Because Federal and State racketeering, profiteering and RICO (Racketeer-Influence and Corrupt Organization) laws make it illegal for criminal organizations to profit from any legitimate business operations. Shit, everything he owned would be confiscated and seized. Hell, RICO took it. It was all over. His sentence of Twenty Five Years to Life would be the only thing he would have in the end.

BLACK COFFEE

BY VILDRED C. TUCKER-DAWSON

Each morning I start out with the same old pattern on a different day; take care of personal hygiene, comb hair, iron clothing, pick out a fresh pair of heels that match the business suit of the season and off to work I go to the job assignment of the day. That was my regular routine. But, who would have thought that this particular Friday would be the day that things would change forever, because no other day had been any different. And, why would anyone suspect things would change on a Friday; after all Friday is the last day of every week. And for me as a temporary worker, if you’ve seen one office setting you’ve seen them all.

What I noticed in this office was that everybody who came to