The early years....

How people described me as a child, and how I saw myself:

I was born at the end of the 19th Century in Tampa, FL to my parents, Henry and Beatrice Davis.  My grandfather had been among those who fought in the last of the Seminole Wars and the Battle of Fort Brooke.  I’ve been told it was a two-day siege on a fort once held by the Confederates during the Civil War.  My family stayed on in the area even after the fort was decommissioned in 1883, just 12 years before my birth.  My father had set up a shop in town - kind of a general store - located close to where the railroad eventually came through.  This part of town eventually became known as Ybor City, named after Vicente Ybor who brought his factories from Key West to Tampa about 10 years before I was born.  Papa had made friends with many of the Cubans who worked in the cigar factories and made sure to have items that interested them in stock.     

Of course, I don’t remember much about being a baby, but I can remember as far back as about six or seven.  People tell me I was a bright and friendly child.  Which must have been true because I had a lot of friends.  I played with both American and Cuban children and even learned to speak Spanish!  Mama said I could talk the ears off a stalk of corn if she would let me.  Whenever I helped Papa in his store, his customers would often say how sweet and happy I was - and how helpful!!  I knew where everything was and it felt good to help someone find something they needed.  I loved running up and down the aisles of Papa’s store.  I can smell the wood floors, hear the crunch of the bags of rice as they were being stacked on shelves and the smell the coffee in the grinder to be bagged and sold.  

I was also a good at helping Mama at home.  At six, it was my job to help set the table for supper and fold clothes after Mama took them down off the line.  As I got older, I learned to cook delicious food, both American and Spanish.  When I wasn’t in school, I was helping Mama with the house or Papa at the store.  I worked hard, but didn’t mind.

Some of my favorite games, toys or ways to entertain myself were:

Most of the girls I knew played a lot of hoop and stick, but I found that game boring after a while.  I liked hopscotch, though, and could play that for hours with my girlfriends.  We invented our own hopscotch designs and rules.  We also played a lot of hide and seek, which was easy in the Florida brush.  There were lots of places to hide, but you had to be careful.  Some places were real swampy and you had to look out for alligators and snakes.  Plus the mosquitos sometimes made playing outside in the heat and humidity unbearable.  

Even though it’s not really a girl’s game, I also liked playing marbles with my brother and his friends.  My brother is two years younger than me and he had lots of friends too.  The boys didn’t seem to mind me playing with them and my parents never seemed to care either. 

My brother:

My brother’s name is Jasper.  Like I said, he’s two years younger than me.  I got along with him ok.  He had a lot of energy growing up and was always running.  Even just going out to the bathroom or to get from the living room to the kitchen he ran.  He often came into the house with some kind of scrape or bruise from falling or jumping from things and getting himself hurt.  Not seriously hurt, though.  But the bumps and bruises didn’t seem to phase him because not long after he’d be back to his daredevil ways.  One time, he and his friends got this bright idea to hang a large rope to a tree overlooking the river.  They took turns swinging on it and diving in seeing who could go the highest or the farthest or do the best tricks.  I didn’t like this game because there were gators in the river and I was afraid they would eat us.  But I watched all the time.  

Jasper often helped out at the store too.  But he often had to be scolded into doing some of the chores, like stacking the heavy bags of rice or carrying large crates of things when they were shipped in from the trains.  I know he would rather have spent all his days out at the river or playing in our front yard, but chores are a part of life.