The Art of Storytelling
Happy October! October is my favorite month of the year. You’ve got football season in full swing. The weather is cooler. Halloween candy, and of course my beloved Howard University Homecoming would also usually be in October as well(Damn You Covid-19). All that being said I felt October would be the perfect month to start telling some “D.O.P.E. Stories” What’s a “D.O.P.E. Story” you ask? Well it's just a catchy way to say a blog about my gardening life inspirations while hip hop albums are playing in the background.
Willie Mae Strong Harris is a woman I rarely speak about. Born April 1st, 1929(some say 1927) in Kingstree, South Carolina she was a woman of small stature with a generous heart, sharp tongue, and a rascal-like sly smile. She could cook, clean and pop the hell out of some "Freedent" gum like nobody’s business. She was also my maternal grandmother and the person I spent the most time with from the age of 5 until I was 9.
I’m probably the only person that I know who is an only child, and an only grandchild on one side. Sounds lonely right? Well not exactly when you have a 57-year-old woman who loves to eat as much as you, and laughs at the Three Stooges with you. Anything I wanted to eat was in her house, and it was mine for the taking. Hell we usually ate it together. Our days consisted of waking up, eating,watching tv, eating, her sitting outside, and we probably ate some more. This was THE life!
Let’s rewind some. Here we are Savannah, Georgia in the mid 1970’s. David Ruffin was “walking away from love,” while The Ohio Players were riding the “Love Rollercoaster.” Meanwhile The O’Jays were “loving music” and Tavares told the world “It Only Takes A Minute” to fall in love apparently. There was clearly a lot of love in the air. One spring day while she was probably cooking. My grandmother had a massive stroke that left her paralyzed on one side. I was told that she had to learn how to walk,and talk among other things all again.
Alright let’s fast forward a bit to the mid 1980’s. Rakim was nominating his DJ “Eric B for President,” and it wasn’t even an election year. The Fresh Prince was warning us to get the hell away because “Girls Are Nothing But Trouble”, and Whistle was “Just Buggin.” Meanwhile young Geoffrey(That’s me) was in the kitchen listening to his grandmother tell him how to cook their afternoon snack. Standing on chairs to reach the top shelves of the cabinets. Grabbing pots, pans,spoons,lard...we ALWAYS used lard for something. Whatever she needed I was her arms and legs. Remember how I said we ate many times a day earlier? Didn’t think I was the one cooking it huh? She was the person who inspired me to cook. As much as I love gardening and I love it a lot. When someone eats my cooking and their face days “DAMN” that’s the greatest feeling in the world for me.
In her kitchen above the sink was a window that received sunlight all day every day. And on the window sill were several, and I mean several glasses with plants in them. Looking back 30 years later I now realize my grandmother was the first gardener in my life. She was the queen of plant propagation. Plant propagation is the process which grows new plants from seeds,cuttings, or other plant parts. In her case she used cuttings. And she was damn good at it. The root systems on her plants were amazing. She would grow huge bushy plants in a glass of water. As a jit..whoops as a young kid, I didn’t understand how my grandmother could grow plants in glasses of water, while everyone else used dirt. Disabled or not, she had the magic touch and I guess she passed it down to me.
In 2002 using lard for all those years came back for revenge. At the age of 73(some say 75) my grandmother passed away. This was after almost 30 years of dealing with stroke complications, 2 heart attacks and diabetes. She was the first person in my life that I was close to that I had to watch suffer and die. She was also the first person in my life that made me realize what we put into our bodies affects our health greatly. When I look for seeds to plant I make sure they offer the necessary health benefits needed for our bodies.
When I was younger I used to wish sometimes that she was “normal” enough to do things like everybody else’s grandmother. We sat in the house and ate, that was our thing. Apparently growing full plants from cuttings was her thing. As I’m typing this I’m looking up at my windowsill at the 5 jars of water and plants I’m trying to propagate thinking to myself “Me and Grammy would grow hella plants together right now!” I started cooking at 5 years old. I’m 39 right now and I’m the main, and the best cook in my family. I’m also pretty decent at propagating plants from cuttings. I thank her for passing on these gifts to me. Willie Mae Strong Harris was D.O.P.E., I’m the only person lucky enough to be able to call her my grandmother…..This story was D.O.P.E.
(This D.O.P.E. Story was written as “Aquemini” by OutKast and “The Love Movement” by A Tribe Called Quest served as the background soundtrack. Both released September 29th, 1998)
