My Savage Journey: My Biography

By Delores Savage

When Delores Savage was eight years old, she moved with her family from the hills and the cotton fields of Oak City, North Carolina, to the big city streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In My Savage Journey, she tells the story of her life in both North Carolina and Philadelphia. She describes going to school and getting her first job at the Robinson Department store. Later, she would spend ten years working at Wanamakers Department Store, long considered to be the first department store in the United States; now she shares stories of customersgood and bad.

She recalls the story of her mothers unhappy marriage to her father in North Carolina and of her mothers rape at age twelve by their pastoran event that produced her daughter, Annabelle. Because of the times, though, this fact was not shared with anyone outside their family for fear of reprisal from the pastor. Delores also takes us through her life and the birth of her five children. She has lived a life full of ups and downs, love and challenges, but she takes pride in her accomplishments.

My Savage Journey is the biography of a strong, faithful woman who is devoted to her remaining family. Its a life story you wont soon forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781475936919

Delores Savage

Delores Savage visited a senior citizen’s center and joined a creative writing program, which inspired her to write her life’s story. She has five children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is her first book.

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Copyright © 2014 by Delores Savage.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-3689-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-3690-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-3691-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 01/13/2014

Contents

My Footsteps

My Turning Point

The Good Memories

When We were Children in North Carolina

The Pastor’s Secret

Becoming a Young Lady

The Children’s Seashore Home

When I Saw the Image of God

My Toys that I Remember

About Soul Food—1947

When Food was Hard to Get

The year 1946 My sister, Roxie

When Roxie’s Boyfriend Died

My Brother, Robert Earl

Mom was fixed by Voodoo

My Friends and Fairmount Park

Ralph My First Love

When I Met Carl

My Husband, Wiggie

The time I met The Harlem Globe Trotters

My Own Home

My sister Annabelle

The Tears I Shed for Carol Ann!

A Letter to My Nieces and Nephews

The Time I Taught My Sons A Lesson—1967

My brothers, Robert and Henry and their friend Lie Bow

The Ending of My Story

mom%20mary%201.jpg

I dedicate this book to my

Mother Mary

With Love!

I am writing my biography because I want my children and grandchildren to know what an amazing woman my mother was.

During the Depression I remember how Mom had to put all five of her children in foster care and I remember how hard it was for her to let us go. And when the depression was over, I remember when she came back for us to take us to our new home.

And even though we were poor and living in the ghettos of Philadelphia, Mom made sure we survived. She was a wonderful mother with such strength and courage and a powerful influence in my life.

She is the reason why I can look back, smile and accept all those things that I cannot change and still call all those days, . . . long gone by… The good old days.

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My Footsteps

I t is very difficult to write about my life’s story, especially about the bad things but even some of the good things become a problem. But I will give it a shot. I begin to write my story at the age of 75 years old. Actually I never thought of writing my story until I started going to the senior citizen center and got into some of the programs and one of them was writing stories about your life.

And I thought that my life story would be something to tell because I will not be just writing about my life story, I will be living it all over again. But Like I said, I will give it a shot. You see, I lived it.

I was born on February 9, 1935 to Mary and Henry Morris Savage. This is when my journey begins. And as I take this journey through life I have learned a lot. Some things I don’t understand and some things I do. But as I walk through this journey of life that God has given me, I have learned a lot.

Never a day goes by that I don’t think of what happened in my life time. So many secrets that have never been told, in those days, the bad secrets were swept under the rug so that no one would know. But they didn’t sweep my memories under the rug.

My footsteps took me from the hills and the cotton fields of Oak City North Carolina, to the big city streets of Philadelphia, PA. I came to Philadelphia in the year 1942, when I was eight years old. Philadelphia is now my home. As I recall, Mom, my brother Joe, my sister Roxie and I got off the train at the 30th Street Station, it was the first time I put my feet on the grounds of Philadelphia, PA. The city where William Penn’s statue stands on top of City Hall, looking down on the city of Brotherly Love, where the big department stores were, like John Wanamaker’s at 13th and Market Street, that was often considered to be the first famous department store in the country. Other stores quickly followed, Merchandise stores like Strawbridge and Clothier at 8th and Market St., Gimbel Brothers, at 9th and Market St, and Lit Brothers on Market Street. There are also famous historical houses. My footsteps even took me to Betsy Ross house on Arch Street where the first flag was made, a symbol of our country. In the park there was Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant and Strawberry Mansion, and the home of the oldest zoo in America, founded in 1859. A place for families to enjoy together, I’ve been here many times. The first time, I was 9 years old and I was on a school trip, I touched the Liberty Bell. It was every bit as famous was the Schuylkill River that runs through Fairmount Park, the popular recreation park that I walked through many times over.

My footsteps even took me to get my first job on Market Street in Philadelphia PA.

I was walking on Market Street one day in the year 1954. Looking in the windows of the stores to see what was new in fashion and something told me to go in the store and ask for a job. And I did. I walked in the store and the first person I saw was a man standing there talking to a worker and by my luck it was Mr. Robertson. I walked up to him and said Excuse me sir where do I go to put in for a job? Not knowing that I was talking to Mr. Robertson. He turned around and said to me, Have you ever worked in a department store before? And I said to him, No sir I have not and then he stared at me for a while and said When can you start?" I stood there with my mouth open because I didn’t expect to hear that, and I think he knew it too because he