God's Chosen People

God’s Chosen People AStorybyLloyd L. Brown It was a fine hill for slid- derson said that the Mrs. Henderson: ingdowninthewintertime. Schusters used to From founding in 1906 to closing in Five blocks long, and steep. own the big house. 1966, the home You didn’t need a That was a long always had a matron. Fine hill for sliding: Brown remembers a The Crispus Attucks Blue Streak or a time ago, long be- Mrs. Lenoir and a Home was located on Flexible Flyer; a fore the Society Mrs. Jackson. The a hill near the corner cardboard carton took the place over. matron in January of DeSoto and Collins 1920 was Hattie (now Tedesco) Streets, was just as good Old Man Schuster Holt.13 just west of Payne after the snow got owned half the tim- Avenue and Swede icy. And when you ber in northern Minnesota at Hollow. found a big piece of one time, she said, and when tin—it was a beer sign that they lived here it Schusters: The was going to fall off the fence was the only house Schusters are fiction- pretty soon anyway—you on the hill. Richest al. A residence once had stood at that loca- curled up one end and went folks in town. And tion, but the Crispus Two little sisters: bellyflop, just like now us—and she’d Attucks building had Lloyd Dight lived at anybody else. laugh. in fact been built as a Attucks with his older The big wooden Standing right charity residence. It brother Ralph, older was the city’s first sister Dorothy, and house was on top of next to the stone Home for the younger sister the hill and none of was a little black Friendless, ancestor to Marguerite.11 the other houses on man in boots. That the current Union Gospel Mission.14 the street were as fine and fancy. That’s where was Jim. He looked real, but he wasn’t; you lived. You and your two little sisters and he was made out of iron. He stood there all the Georgie and Doug and Jewell and Annie Mae time with one hand up holding a big ring in it, and the rest of the kids and the old folks too and he was bowing toward the street. Sometimes Rest of the kids: In and Mrs. Henderson. Your sisters and after a hard snow, and after the snowplow went January 1920,the the other young ones were too little to by, all you could see was his hand with the ring only time for which we go sliding, or to school either. sticking up. In the summertime, when the have a complete list of residents, eight other There was a low block of granite waterwagon rolled down with the big gray hors- children lived at near the curb before you went up the es holding back hard, their hoofs braced in the Attucks: Uldine and steps to the front door. Carved on its dusty road and their straw bonnets bobbing up Gaynell Younger, street side was one word: SCHUSTER. and down as they tucked in their jaws, the sprin- Olivia Vernon, John Daniels, and Virgil, It looked just like a graveyard stone kler would get Jim all wet and he’d be shinier Winifred, Robert, and and the kids across the street said and blacker than ever. And when it stormed at Warrene Breeding.12 maybe somebody was buried there, night and the thunder rolled low and the rain and they wouldn’t ever step on it. Mrs. Hen- slashed at the shingles you could look out of FALL 2001 375 your window under the roof and see him way It was a big, fancy house all right. Three sto- down below, a tiny little man standing under the ries tall and there was an attic and on top there gaslamp. All by himself, but he wasn’t afraid. was a little tower that looked like the Big fancy house: The School: Lincoln When you ran down in the morn- wedding cake at the Bon Ton Bakery. house was certainly School, a St. Paul ing you said, Goodbye, Jim, I’m going And on top of that there was a weath- big, but not fancy by public grade school, to school, and when you came home ervane. The horse’s head was broken today’s standards. It stood one block east of had, however, a dis- the Crispus Attucks you said, Hi, Jim, here I am again. off. Sometimes at night when you tinguished origin, Home on Collins Not all the time, though. Like that were in bed you could hear him being a very early Street. day you didn’t want to talk to any- squeaking when he turned around in commission of Clarence H. Johnston. body—not even Jim. You ran all the way up the the wind. Because you were big you The St. Paul architect hill and up the steps and around to the back had a room all by yourself in the attic. later designed many and into the carriage house where nobody It was a little room but it was very nice truly fancy homes on could ever find you or ask you what’s the matter. and Mrs. Henderson had pasted up a and near St. Paul’s Summit Avenue, as There weren’t any carriages in the place—just a picture of Black Beauty on the sloping well as numerous lot of broken chairs and beds and a cracked wall. There was an iron bed, painted churches and public pisspot with roses on the lid and some rakes and white, with tin cans filled with kero- buildings.17 a lawnmower and a horsecollar on the wall with sene under each leg. That was to keep the bed- straw sticking out of it. bugs from crawling up. There were a lot of Funny how it was. First it was just singing— them and the wallpaper was streaked Bedbugs: “The worst all the kids in the auditorium singing I’m where you squashed them. Like shoot- partofmylifein Forever Blowing Bubbles and Over There and ing stars. poverty were the bedbugs in that place,” Tipperary. That was after the pledge-allegiance In front of the house there was a Brown says. They did part, with Mr. Olson standing on the stage in his wide porch; it had railings with a lot of not bother his brother, khaki Home Guard uniform holding the little knobs on them like the ones on but “I was a choice 18 American flag. He was the janitor. Then they the big brass bed that Mrs. Henderson target.” Theresa Margiotti: had to go and sing that Li’l Liza Jane slept in. All the way down in the street you could This character is a song and they sang the words funny see the sign over the porch: PETER SALEM composite of many and looked at you funny and smiled to HOME FOR THE AGED. It was gold lettering Italian American girls who lived in the themselves—all of them. Every one of and even though some of the words were faded neighborhood and them. Even Theresa Margiotti who you could read them all. And you knew who attended Lincoln was your friend, she giggled too. Peter Salem was, too—the black man who 15 School. YoutoldJimthenextdayyouwere fought at Bunker Hill; Mrs. Henderson told sorry you didn’t say hello but you didn’t tell him you. She knew a lot of things the teacher didn’t why. You didn’t tell Mrs. Henderson either. One know. Miss Regan didn’t know about Peter time when she saw you running home like that Salem for one thing. and you told her about how Terry O’Brien You were seven—nearly eight—and you had called you chocolate drop and the girls all start- started going to school the same year they ed singing it like a song—like that song they brought you to the Home. It was You were seven: In fact Brown was Choc’lit drop: Lloyd sing when they’re jumping rope: funny at first, you and your sisters between four and five Brown remembers choc’lit drop, choc’lit drop, hi ho a leary ho, being in this place with all the real old years old when he children calling him choc’lit drop. she washed your face people. But after a while some more came to Crispus this and other names Attucks, and seven at school, although and said next time you just call them children came, but they were little when he left.19 his skin color was po’ white trash, that’s all, you just call kids and you wished the Charities much fairer than them that—po’ white trash! Then she would bring some that were big. Mrs. chocolate brown.16 held you close like she did the little Henderson said it ought to be just for old folks ones and you felt worse than ever and wished and they ought to start a home for colored you were back in your secret place where no orphans, too. But she was glad to have you just one could see you. the same. 376 MINNESOTA HISTORY She was a nice lady, the matron, and when never talked to anybody. Just sat in a rocking you had the whooping cough she made onion chair by the stained-glass bay window and tea and brought it all the way up to your room rocked back and forth and hummed.

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