Mary Wells | 11/05/2009 9:42 am

Mary Wells's First New York Experience

In response to: The milkman cometh back! Do you remember a time when he delivered your milk?

We didn’t have milkmen. We didn’t have mailmen or paperboys either. I lived in a very small town that seems now like a dream. There were no immigrants, no black people, no rich or sadly poor people. We went to a little grocery store for milk. My father brought magazines home from work and they seemed very exotic. The first time I saw New York I almost had a heart attack.

Read more about: Childhood, Family, Memories, New York City, Travel

6 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Ms. Wells I’m going to date myself here :) Did yall have a popcorn/peanut vender who’d come down your street with a cart selling roasted peanuts and acorns, or popcorn?

My fondest memories as a child was being at Nanna Maude’s and after eating her pancakes made in the shape of animals with hot home-made maple syrup. Papa would sit outside with us waiting for him to come on down the street (he didn’t have a monkey :) ). Then on the weekends Mr. Softee would come with his ice cream truck with the best tasting soft ice creams in a really cool cone.

I love thinking about that part of my live, I was young, happy, and had a ball playing at Nanna’s and Papa’s. They had a way of making you feel special and so very loved.

By Deniseann Taylor on 11/05/2009 10:30 am

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I always wished I had come from a small town in the way that you explain Mary (sans the no Black people for obvious reasons :-)

In my mind they always seem so quaint, laid back and slow. One of my favorite old shows is Andy Griffith’s Mayberry RFD. The town fictitious as it may be, has a charm about it that fits my personality. I am always talking about retiring in some off the beaten path small town where people can sit on the porch at night and drink lemonade, not worry about locking their doors and hang clothes out to dry on a warm Summer’s day.

Problem is I think a place like that only exist in my mind. Something tells me I would be hard pressed to find that type of community anymore in this day and age.

By Belinda Joy on 11/05/2009 11:54 am

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I responded to you…because again your wisdom is so right on… so please read my post below…it will shed some light, and I will be sharing my full story now that my surgeon has allowed me to be more active and begin to work again. Thank you Ms. Belinda for being a temendous balance on this board.

Amy, PennDragon Studios

By Amy Stewart Hale on 11/05/2009 1:32 pm

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Ms. Belinda … again, you are completely correct.

I thought I found that when I moved outside of Atlanta after I was widowed and was looking for a small town experience for our son to grow up in.

Like you, sans the lack of culture and variety…because I like all people, regardless of what they look like, or identify themselves with, or how they worship, or don’t. So I chose a college town thinking it would be more diverse.

What I actually found in the small town community I chose to live in was levels of corruption that were mind blowing and well hidden. The corruption controls the law here regardless of how hard you work, and how much you give to the community…

Now that I am rebounding from a life saving surgery, that almost didn’t happen because of the afore mentioned corruption.

My Mentor told me today to get ahold of a women’s rights group to find a legal team that can help me to break the grasp of the corruption that was wielded at me…because I have that much actual fact based proof.

After moving to my Mayberry, what I found out is that when you have a big city mentality, even though you also bring hard work, politeness and respect with you, in the south, anyway…your right to privacy isn’t always respected as a right.

…and that is the reason I almost died less than two weeks ago.

I had to have a hystorectomy because the doctor I was going to wanted to make the physical reality I was facing something I was creating in my mind since it was a bladder issue, and would call specialists I was trying to get answers from, tell them to not listen to my actual physical symptoms or what they were actually seeing …

… see, when I was younger, I made a choice…because my then husband (ex for 20 years) almost killed me by abuse, and I refused to have another child by him. That was my legal choice to make, as it still is today.

My reality is that after my last and third child was born five years ago, my uterus was torn loose most likely when my tubes were tied by a group of doctors who place no value on lives of women who’ve made that choice…

My uterus has been bouncing around inside of me for the last five years because all of it’s supporting ligaments were cut. I’ve known something wasn’t right since that surgery, finding a doctor with morals in Mayberry was an issue.

When it finally got to heavy to keep moving due to scar tissue created by it being able to bounce around…it settled on top of my bladder… restricting my ability to urinate. When you can’t urinate, you will die.

I was told by a gynecologist two months ago that she didn’t know what was wrong with me…and good luck in in actually finding a doctor that would be willing to help me.

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else than outside of Atlanta, because I’ve lived here 15 years, and most of my adult life, it’s where I call home…and this is a free Country. I should not have to worry about this level of violations from supposed professionals, regardless of where I choose to live.

However the corruption created by fundamental religious organizations that think they control everyone…and if you don’t agree or comply, you are putting your life and the lives of your family at risk.

So be careful when looking for Mayberry…because it is truly hard to find.

Amy, PennDragon Studios

simpletownUSA.com

By Amy Stewart Hale on 11/05/2009 1:26 pm

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I’m speechless Amy.

No, your version of Mayberry is not one that I aspire to live in….far from it. I may be naive, but I honestly never think of not being accepted in a small town because of my race. I tend to believe there are more people in America who aren’t racist than are. We may differ on religious beliefs, politics or morals, but that doesn’t mean I would be disliked because of my race. so I always assumed the one problem I would have in making my way to small town living would be, being accepted for who I am as a big city gal. Would my outspoken nature clash with their slow way of dealing with things.

Because it is a small town, are their ideas about women, work, morals and values antiquated? And if they are, how could I handle being around that? Some reading your post about a doctor calling other physicians to what I would call "bad mouth you" may think you sound paranoid. However for reasons I can’t go into because of where I work, I can attest to the fact this type of thing does indeed happen among professionals. It’s ridiculous and petty, but it happens everyday all over the country.

I really have taken this subject seriously and actually have done my homework in trying to find a small town to move to.I’m torn because I really want to land a job in D.C. But in 10 years I want to be retired in a small quiet place off the beaten path. It will be interesting to see where I ultimately end up.

Amy, it sounds as if you have had many obstacles and trials and tribulations in your life. And it’s heartbreaking to hear you are still going through them (through no fault of your own) but you also sound optimistic about life and what lies ahead for you. Kudos to you Dear Friend, all will work out best in the end. What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.

P.S. Your artwork is beautiful. You have a true gift.

By Belinda Joy on 11/05/2009 3:23 pm

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Dear Ms. Belinda,

Thank you.

I have painted for twenty years, though I started my adult life behind a microphone as a DJ who spun vinyl on the air, and we had to take a written test to get a licence to talk on a microphone back then.

It was when I began working with animators as a voice talent, I found a group that fit my heart…although my work is not as an animator, my training and professional focus is learning traditional technique in a day and age when computers are the answer to everything. Art is the path I’ve walked for 20 years.

I have to admit I caved and am learning this new medium called computer technology…though I will admit it is a love/hate acceptance of technology that my Mentors drag me kicking and screaming into :) …and they will tell you that.

After having lived in Chicago for five years, when I moved to mayberry I thought the mayberry I found was forward thinking enough to at best understand and respect me and my voice, I found I was sadly mistaken…

In the actual mayberry I lived in for 10 years, also lives a very wealthy and very scary anti-abortionist. Who is most likely pretty racist too…and he and his good o’le boys think they control the laws, because many of them are law enforcement.

Atlanta and it’s surrounding suburban area’s are a racially diverse place, and if you ever spend any time here, you will learn that…

My experience of racism is more from the perspective of the racist religious profiling that is rampant here, because I am outspoken about my faith without religion…and I use yoga and meditation as exercise.

Both of which are well within my rights as a Natural Born Citizen who was born in the back of an Army Jeep…(true story), on Easter Sunday 1969 at midnight to a Roman Catholic Fundamentalist Mother who freaked out about my actual time of birth, and date…if there is any group I can criticize with real life perspective, it would be that one…because I was ex-communicated for divorcing my abuser…and my mother doesn’t approve of my work, I learned to not let that be my problem.

I look at obstacles in my life as challenges we all face…I have never felt the need for oh, woa is me…I prefer to make lemon-aide from the lemons life tosses my way…and we all have stories to tell. This latest challenge really threw me for a loop…and I came very close to being one of the 45,000 that die due to lack of health care…

And we (my current/final and 3rd husband) are paying out of pocket for mine. Because the same group of doctors I mentioned before also deemed me uninsurable 10 years ago.

…and as much as I believe there is an answer to health care, my reality is one that knows when laws are written, so are back doors …and I don’t have enough confidence in the insurance industry to stick to a law that requires them to support pre-existing conditions. No matter how much they voice that issue as being resolved with this health care package.

…and when I had to have heart surgery in 2000, the same group of doctors stopped hiring me so I could pay them for my care, thus ruining my credit, a hurdle to me, and one many Americans face today.

And I still had to support my child, so I went to school to learn computers, and got a start. Another obstacle happened that can be tied to the afore mentioned group from at least three separate directions all ending up at the anti-abortionist that controls that area. I have since moved to another part of Atlanta and love it…so not all of mayberry is bad…you just have to do some serious research about the demographics of the area you are interested in, and that would be the best advice I can give you in finding a mayberry that fits you.

To me…the key to me is breath…because in breath, there is life, and in life, there is always creation.

…and I’ll never stop creating…

My amazing, lifesaving doctor (who is truly a hero), Dr. Bailey of NE GA Medical Center, and his partners are working very hard to save women like me from what I went through…cleared me yesterday to work in my studio again…with cautionary awareness of myself…

…because he knows that when I’m in my groove, the world around me disappears and my world becomes the work I am creating at that moment. I lose track of time and anything my body needs…so my husband is on notice to keep an eye on me while I heal.

My works are for sale, 100% of my original of ‘The Eagle’ will be donated to flood relief through The United Way…and once I have secured some level of publicity for the auction, as well a …I will begin the auction. Most of my works when sold donate a minimum of 20% to various programs supporting various causes.

…I also commit 10% of all future merchandising of all my work to various programs aiding people who are in need.

I do that, because I know what I do is a gift and for me to be selfish and keep it all for me, goes against my truth and the artist I am.

Again, Thank you…I look at it from the perspective of we all have gigs to do, mine just happens to be creating art with my hands, by the concepts that stir me to create the art I make that makes a difference in anyway it can.

Amy, PennDragon Studios

GypsyDreams.biz

By Amy Stewart Hale on 11/05/2009 4:52 pm