Grandpop's Land
~ I was born in 1936 in Brunswick County, Virginia. My parents separated and I went to live in Penllyn, Pa. Every summer, after I was nine years old, I would go to spend a couple of weeks with my Grandpop Benny. I remember him as a very proud man, especially proud of the land he had inherited. He told me " when you inherit your land keep it and make it work for you. Don't sell it,always keep the land in the Blackwell family". He said when the land was purchased, "Colored" people could not buy land in Virginia. His family went North and worked on the railroad and sent money home to a white friend who purchased land and put it in the Blackwell name.I remember him walking with me out to the road and standing there saying"as far as you can see, in all directions, is Blackwell land, we have to keep it that way".

Grandpop's House
~ My Grandmother Lizzie died when I was very young,so, Grandpop lived alone. Grandpop would often talk about Grandma Lizzie. He told me that she was a school teacher and had graduated from St. Paul's Normal & Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia. My Aunt Mary had also graduated from St.Paul's. He let me play with grandma's book trunk. She had a collection of Hawthorne and Poe's works. That was my introduction to Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I would read the little red books, that was the beginning of my fascination with Hawthorne and Poe. Grandpop loved and was quite proud of grandma Lizzie.
The one thing that impressed me most about Grandpop's home was, unlike other homes in the area, the kitchen was a separate building across from the main house. The main house had 4 very large rooms and two large hallways. There were two rooms on the first floor and two rooms on the second floor. I don't remember much about the rooms upstairs but I can still see the rooms on the first floor. Grandpop's room had two windows, one in the front and one in the back. His bed was huge, a couch, two chairs, two tables and a very large fireplace.All the furniture seemed large to me in comparison to the furniture in my home in Pa. The second room had a fireplace, bed and half the room was set up like a living room.with huge black leather furniture. Company sat in this room. In the hallway was a stand that had four pitcher and basin sets. We used them to wash up.. Water came from the well out back. Across the circle of grass out front was a one room building, this was the kitchen. In the room was a table, chairs, stove (woodstove I think) two cupboards. One held dishes and the other held food flour,sugar, salt etc.I remember the lard or fat was kept in a large tin container. One day the top wasn't placed on tight and one of grandpop,s cats fell in-poor thing, grandpop's hungry hunting dogs chased the cat for hours but, finally, he escaped under the house.

Buildings
~ There were a number of buildings on the property. One was a smoke house where cured meat was kept, another housed drying tobacco, and another had corn and feed for the cows, chickens and pigs, and of course there was the outhouse. He had no electricity so, food was kept cool in the well and the creek.Oil lamps were used for light. I remember the lamps gave a lot of light. I was able to read by them.

The Gardens
~ The house sat back off the road. Out front he had fields of cotton, peanuts, corn and vegetables. My favorite garden was the one that was back in the woods. There he grew mellons.He would hitch the mule to a sled and ride back to the mellon patch and there I could pick my own watermellon.We would eat the center of the watermellon and the rest would be fed to the pigs.This was really a treat because up north, as grandpop refered to Pa.,we had one for the whole family and we ate it by slices.

Transportation
~ We traveled by mule and wagon.We would go to the store, to town Brodnax and South Hill. We even went as far as Lawrenceville. I loved it. It was more fun than traveling by car.

The Blackwell Cemetary
~ One summer, a relative died. I learned that summer that the Blackwells had their own cemetary The cemetary was off the road back in the woods. There were a lot of tombstones or grave markers. Most were made of wood. I haven't been back there since but, I guess I'll have to go back now to check the dates. I know grandpop, grandmom and my father are buried there.

My special treat.
~ My treat at the end of my vacation would be the jar of change that grandpop saved for me. He dropped change in it all year. We would sit out front while I counted it. It seemed like a million dollars to me. It was so special, it was a gift from my Grandpop.