www.TheSuttonz.com
Gwendolyn Sutton
aka "Gwen"
Hi, I'm Gwen, the name I prefer to be called. I was born In Birmingham, Alabama, to a wonderful mother (Dorothy Lee Kimble Jones) that shared a lot of love for her seven kids. My stepfather (Fletcher Jones) adopted me and my older sister, Regina Jones McFarland, at the sweet age of two. He is the father that I love and cherish to this day. My stepfather died when I was nine years old after a long, long bout with food poison, that he detected while in the Army after serving in World War II; this is the story my Mom told us. Since the age of two, I can remember staying awake with my stepfather, trying to console him from a coughing spell that he constantly had that kept him up most of the night.
One day he was so sick that my Mom had to take him to the hospital; we never saw him again until his funeral. I was so hurt and ‘til this very day, I still feel as if he died yesterday. I really cared a lot for my stepfather and he felt the same for me. Although he married my Mom and had four other kids; Fletcher, Conward, Roderick and Yuvonne, he loved me as if I was his biological child.
After my Dad died my mother was lost because she never had to work, my father provided everything we needed. He would bring home boxes and boxes of peanut butter with the oil still standing on top (smile). He often came home from a hunting trip with a jacket on with lots of pockets on the inside. When he would open his coat he had rabbits stuck in all the pockets. We ate a lot of rabbits and gravy, and of course lots of grits and biscuits with the rabbits and gravy. Surprisingly, the rabbit taste just like chicken! Oh, by the way, my father raised chickens in the back yard as well. My oldest sister and I had to catch a chicken for dinner one evening; that turned into one night ordeal. That chicken refused to let us catch it and it was well past dark we finally did catch it. I remember we had to lay his head on a wood block and get an ax to cut his head off. During the summer, my mother didn't do that. She would boil water until it was real hot then ring the chicken’s neck and put it in the hot water. The hot water made the feathers come off easily.
Before my father died he bought us a new house. One day we all went over to see the new house and he moved a new stove in the next day. That was the only furniture we were able to move into the house before he was hospitalized. Of course with my mother never having to work, we couldn't afford to live in the house.
After all this diphtheria dease was out, (now there's a shot for babies ) my brother Conward caught diphtheria , kids were dieing from diphtheria, first you would get a sore throat, and your throat would bleed, my brother had to go to the hospital, I was so sad I really didn't know how to handle a second death in the family. I didn't know any spiritual songs to sing, but I LOVED going to church. After my Dad died, my mother didn't allow us to go to church with our neighbor down the street anymore. Anyway, I heard the song, Unchanged Melody, and I would sing that song and think about my brother Conward, hoping to see him again. Well, I guess some of the words in that song must have had some spiritual input because Conward is still alive (smile). The funny thing about him now is that he actually CRIES when he sees me. Funny, huh? I think he knows I'm his guardian angel.
My mother’s father owned a house in West Ensley, Alabama, and at one time owned a store next to the house. When my grandfather died, the house was willed to the four siblings; my mother, Aunt Zady, Auntee Carina, Uncle L.D. and Aunt Olivia. Aunt Olivia was the baby girl of the family and was having a harder time before Ma-Ma really did so they all agreed to let Aunt Olivia live in the house. Later, we moved guess where? IN THE STORE! But, we were happy because we were very close after Dad died. Even though we were some what in the country, we road our bikes up and down those country hills. Have you ever road a bike UP A HILL?! Sounds easy, huh? Believe me, it's hard, but all of us (my sisters and brothers) mastered the hills (smile) All of us had fun!!
In order for my mother to receive my fathers Social Security check, we had to move back to Birmingham; we changed schools many, many times. After moving back to Birmingham, we were evicted from the house. We all came home from school one day to find all of our furniture setting outside. Boy, was that scary and very sad. Following that, everything went down hill for us. My mother tried to work at a cleaners to help make ends meet. Before she went to work she always made a fire for us early in the morning so that the house was warm when we got up. My mother did a lot for us kids and we loved her dearly. Mom got arthritis and was in constant pain, but she still made us fires. Sometimes she would go out to look for wood to start the fire because we didn't have money to buy coal. Coal would burn better and she didn't have to go out looking for wood early in the morning. Coal was a treat for us when we had the money. Anyway, we put all our furniture back in the house after being evicted because later on my mother got the Social Security check and was able to bring the rent up to date. The lights and water were off but we didn't care, we were not out doors in the cold.
One day we had NO FOOD to eat, except the butter and water in the refrigerator. I remember my mother kept looking in old purses that she had and finally found 15 cents. She sent us to the store and we bought a loaf of bread -- which was 10 cents at that time -- and a nickels worth of cookies -- which was two for a penny. We came back from the store, put butter on our bread, drink some water, lit a candle for light and finally went to sleep.
As you can see, we all became very close. We spent lots of nights with my mother talking about life and telling us the value of an education so that our kids would not have to live the way we lived. I remember all us girls each had a brother to bathe, or more or less take care of, in a #5 tin tub. This would happen every Sunday night. They all had to use the same water and we would use lye soap, which my mother made, to bathe in. We took baths and washed our hair with lye soap (smile).
Well, Christmas came and again, no food or toys. Nothing, even though my mother had three siblings living in the same town, she would not ask them for anything and did not allow us to ask. We had to keep our mouths shut about what took place in our house; lots of sad experiences. My mother taught us a lot about life. After my Dad's Social Security checks started coming in, we moved again, and again since my mother was having it so hard with seven kids. My Dad's sister offered to keep myself and my sister Yuvonne so we stayed a year in Gary, Indiana. Although we had lots of food and clothes, we missed our family … we missed our mother. I guess we missed getting a whipping for talking back too (smile). We even missed the grits and biscuits.
When we returned home to my mother, things were still the same, but my mother was there. I remember having to tear a pieced of linoleum from the floor to put in my shoes because I had worn a hole in them. Then I got wise and wrote my aunt and ask her to send us clothes and shoes. She sewed so she made Yuvonne and I clothes that were the same; we looked like twins. Eventually Yuvonne didn't want to dress like me because she said I was too loud at school and she didn't want the kids at school to know she knew me, but she got over it.
After eating a lot of grits and donut bread (my mother worked at a bakery), we moved up a notch. My mother went to work for Tutwiler Hotel in Birmingham (very exclusive hotel). Every night she would bring us the leftovers that people (governors, conferences, big celebrities, etc.) would leave. Well, we were full (smile) She would often come home and show us how to set the table, because that was a part of her job (to set the tables and serve the meals). I thought that was neat; I felt so important to know something that other kids didn't know. My mother kept us very close. All of her siblings use to talk about her and make her cry by saying that she thought we were more than the other kids in the family. Well, that was the way she treated us and I guess she felt that she had to protect us after our Dad died.
I started high school and met Willie M. Sutton. I was always late leaving school. One day I came around the corner and he pretended he was late leaving too, so he ask if he could walk me home. I said, yes, and as we passed his house he ran up the steps to his house. I said, “I think I like you” and he said, “I think I like you too.” Three years later my wonderful son, Willard was born. Even though I was a senior when he was born, I chose not to graduate that May. During that time you could not go back to school for a year after having a baby, then you had to go to another school. My mother kept Willard until I graduated from Ullman high School, but I graduated.
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Email Gwen at gwen.sutton@pentagon.af.mil