By Frances Bryce, March 5, 2020 — The subject that was suggested was “feeling lucky,” and I had never thought about feeling lucky until I thought about maybe, I had something to be lucky about if I thought about the past. So that’s what I started doing.
I am one of seven children who was born in the segregated South. And when I say “segregated South” I mean schools and busses [though] we didn’t even have busses because there were only about ten thousand people in the whole town. And my grandmother worked for a rich family (a Caucasian family of course) and she had to go to the house by the back door. And then she could go the front door, and sweep off the steps. So that was a part of being in a segregated city.
So one of the things that happened was in our family of seven, the oldest person in the family was with a boy. There were five boys and two girls. The first four were older than I and I was the first girl born. My oldest brother was thrilled, ’cause that meant that he would no longer, when I got old enough, have to do the girl things.
So that was the part that began and ended when I got old enough because then I took over some of the duties. [This] meant doing whatever. And so my oldest brother was in the Navy, and he got there because during that time most of the black young men were sent to the Army. So my grandmother worked for this white family, so she was able to get him in the Navy, so he never had to go on the battlefield. And when he came back he said to me, and to the rest of the family, “The important thing is getting an education and getting out of Lawrence.” So that’s what we did.
The oldest person helped the next in line and that was the way it went. And when I went off to school, with the help of my oldest brother, and another brother, the thing that happened I met my husband, which was a lucky break for me. He was generous and kind, and we had a good life. He is no longer living, but he worked for General Electric and NASA. And I worked in various places.
But to me, I don’t think of it so much as luck, but having great parents and having a goal in life gives me a lucky feeling. That’s me.