Little address book

I came across my old address book. It had been hidden inside a box in my storage shed. Flipping through the pages I felt as if I were flipping through time. These pages were like opening a time capsule of the period of time and the people back when I was establishing myself.

My old address book

On the first pages were addresses I resided after college. I needed these addresses a couple years ago when I was filling out an application of all my prior whereabouts. The address of the apartment I stayed in Jackson, Mississippi, and then my addresses where I lived in Shreveport, LA.  I eventually stopped renting and bought a condo, so that address as well as the clinic I worked were all there.

Flipping through the months for birthdays,  I saw names of people I've long forgotten. Name and birth dates listed were Ella Mae Patterson, my Dad's dad's sister. I remember her place was near the Super Dome in New Orleans. It was at her place on hot evening I learned that roaches lived in trees and they can fly and if they land on your head, they give off an awful smell hard to shampoo out. It was a flight of stairs up to her place, and the other side of the duplex was my aunt and her kids. I do believe I have a photo of me sitting with my grandfather and Monique on the sofa at Ella Mae's. I also remember Ella Mae read her Bible daily, and it was a biggest Bible I'd ever seen due to the large print. I haven't heard what happened to Ella Mae after that. Some 30 years ago have gone by.

Names of some of the guys I knew in the Corps, Mark, Rocky, David, to give a few, and names of classmates I went to college with.

Names of my first clients in Montgomery I saw. Virginia Durr was one of them. Her husband, Clifford Durr, defended Rosa Parks after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a Caucasian man back in the 60s. Mrs. Durr had a memory like and elephant.  She told me many things when I was working on her in my office or in her home when I made house calls. If someone called and wanted to interview Mrs. Durr, she's oblige while I continued massaging her, and when the call was over, she'd hang up. Never did I hear her say 'good-bye'. She summered with her daughters in Martha's Vineyard. Hanging on her bedroom was a photo of her husband, and on the wall in her living room was a large painting of her. One of her daughters was married to Hugo Black, a past Supreme Court Justice. Mrs. Durr was like a living history book. She'd met Eleanor Roosevelt and was instrumental in woman's voting rights. I could go on and on. I still have her book she signed for me and a note in her handwriting that she was well pleased with the services I provided.

 I flipped through and saw names of people I did business with in Shreveport. Some names I ran across drew a blank. I couldn't remember why I wrote their name and phone number in my address book.  They had to mean something to me at the time to write their name in my address book.

Some old boyfriends and their brother's and mother's names I have listed along with birth dates.


I have the couple's name who befriended me in Jackson Mississippi. I hadn't thought of them in
years. I remember their home was situated amongst some big, tall pine trees in Jackson. I wish I had kept in touch with them. I really liked that couple.

And Dr. Ed Gavin, from whom is posted to this day on my board a card he gave me which reads, 'How to succeed in business'. Turn it over and  in bold letters it reads, 'GO TO WORK, IT NEVER FAILS'.

 And Pam, whom Mom hired to make a house call to give Grandpa a massage to help relax his rigid muscles. Pam and I spoke and she helped me get started doing massages in Montgomery. Before I had enough money to order a portable massage table, I made do with a foam cushion that was long enough to lie on and I covered it and use it to give massages. It was rough because I was on my knees. Pam referred her clients to me when she got married and moved to Birmingham. I soon bought a massage table and steadily got more clients from word of mouth and advertising in the Montgomery Magazine. Those were my early days and lean days and got me going until I took the Chiropractic Boards.  Pam gave me so very good contacts for which I am still very grateful, because some became my good friends and stayed clients and patients until I retired.

My friend from high school, Eileen, I have six addresses listed for her ranging from Corpus Christi, Lockhart,  and Austin. She moved around a lot, but she always informed me of her new address.

 I even have Jimmie J. whom is female, one of my patients in Shreveport.

And, Darla, (I've changed her name) who had a house cleaning business located on Southern Boulevard. Her business was doing well and she was employing at least a dozen women. I knew Darla before I opened my first office in Montgomery and in a position to afford hiring staff and employees.  I saw that Darla gave classes to her employees and they worked in teams to clean a house.  Darla's weakness was she liked to buy expensive dresses. She came to work dressed to the
 hilt as a professional business women. I saw her dresses on racks in her office. She could start her own woman's exclusive clothing shop with what looked like a hundred or more dresses.
She confided to me that she was in serious trouble for not paying some taxes. She didn't want to but she divorced her husband as a tactic so their home wouldn't be confiscated.
I hope it all worked out. I noticed her business closed after that and I've not seen or heard from her since.

I have my Dad's addresses listed when he lived in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Florida.

Derrick's address and phone number. Derrick was a Marine Corps vet who lived on the next block in Waterloo. I rode my bike back and forth to work when I was temporarily home but still active duty. He saw me wearing my uniform and stopped me and told me he had been in the Marines. He was planning to learn the trade of working on elevators and went to live in Brooklyn. He started a neighborhood organization called T.A.S.T.E. It's amazing that I remembered that. But I've forgotten what it stands for. Oh well.

This little address book is like going back in time to the places I've lived and the people I've met and were connected to at the time.

Funny how some names immediately conjured up memories, and a few I can't recall anything about at all. From now on I must write something along with their name so in the future I will have something to go on.

I wonder if my name in someone's address book has a problem remembering who I am?

Next, pull out my old journals and see what I wrote back in the 70s.