Truckin' on the Western Branch

Carolyn Taylor and Inez Randolph Carolyn Taylor and her sister, Inez Randolph, grew up in Twin Pines, two of seven children born to Elizabeth and Odell Loney. Elizabeth “Elsie” Loney worked most of her life as the Ballard family housekeeper. The sisters are both retired educators. Taylor said, Twin Pines was a fun place to grow up, a typical village with only four streets. Everyone had a hand in raising all the children. The land was originally given by the Bidgoods for housing for laborers to keep them nearby. Trucks would come to pick up laborers for fieldwork. It was a village of individual homes built close to the road so the backyards could hold a garden and animals—chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, and cows. Then the Webleys from Hodges Ferry built what we called Baby Row, a line of three-room duplexes with no indoor plumbing. They rented for $3 a week with little electricity. In Twin Pines people worked during the day, so the action really began when the men got off work from Virginia Chemicals, the Navy Yard, and Pig Point. Some had cars and they carpooled. There was a general store owned by James Terry and later his niece, Mildred Williams, and her husband, Billy. They sold everything—meat, canned goods, hand-dipped ice cream, candy, shoes, boots, work clothes, and Coca-Cola. Our favorite treats were ice cream cones and peppermint sticks shoved into pickles to suck on—15 cents.

Inez Randolph and Carolyn Taylor. Image by Sheally

We used to get our peppermint sticks and pickles and sit on the store steps watching for the family fights to begin. We knew where the families were that would get drunk and the fights would start, and we’d be watching until Mother came to take us home.

Segregation was an accepted way of life. If we took the bus downtown to Portsmouth, we had to sit in back of bus and give up seats if a white person was standing. Mother told us how to act to stay out of trouble. We didn’t know we were segregated—we thought it was the way it was supposed to be.

Our mother was very intelligent and very attractive. She stood out in school at Churchland Elementary for Colored, winning all the spelling bees. She served as the secretary to most of the neighborhood organizations and did all the obituaries for the church.

Our father died in 1966 from a heart attack. Years earlier Mother had gone to work for the Ballards when Inez was 14 months old. She worked there 65 years as a domestic and the primary caregiver to Mrs. Hawks’ mentally disabled daughter. She had Fridays and Saturdays and every other Sunday off but would go prepare Sunday dinner for the extended family. She was well regarded as a cook and a baker. She was also a seamstress and altered all the neighbors’ clothes at no cost. She loved making pickles and preserves for Christmas gifts for neighbors, friends, and others who would beg them from her.

Randolph remembers the family’s three-room house with no bath but some electricity. As the family grew, their father added rooms until they had six rooms and a bath.

She remembers Ronnie Elliot’s daughter who used to come stay in Twin Pines with her grandmother before she became a celebrity, rapper Missy Elliot.

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