I have my Aunt Cookie to thank for introducing me to travel (on right in 2nd photo). She took me on my first plane ride when I was 18 months old. From that age until I was about 6, every year she’d fly from B’more to Detroit to get me so that I could spend summers with both sides of my family. I am a #DetroitGirl through and through, I’m also a #BaltimoreishGirl?! From birth to about age twelve my mother would send me from the D to B’more the day after school ended and I’d return the day before school was back in session in September. My Aunt Cookie took me EVERYWHERE - my first trips to DC, Baltimore Harbor, King’s Dominion, Lexington Market, duck pin bowling; you name it , we went. Where she didn’t take me, my paternal grandparents did - drives to Virginia to visit an elder relative who lived in a house heated only by a woodburning stove and whose beds I marveled at with true childlike wonder because I’d never seen beds so high up you needed a little step stool to climb into them. My grandparents were poor, but they still managed to take me to Oriole’s baseball games, the crab market (to pick live crabs for a ‘round the kitchen table crab feast), free concerts in the park, fireworks at the Harbor, and, of course, all day on Sundays at Central Baptist Church.
It truly was my pleasure to be the one doing the touring today. Despite the extreme temps (93°) we had a great time at the museum. My aunts are still spry, though understandably moving more slowly than when I was a little girl. We took our time and saw all of the exhibits on the lower level (slavery through reconstruction) and, like always, when I visit museums that pay homage to our ancestors horrific traumas at that start of our existence in this country, I cried. Yet, I was then lifted by the fantastical hope for our future by the artifacts and imagery in a special Afro Futurism exhibit. I’ll have to return another day to see the upper floors.
We closed the evening with a lovely dinner at Mo's Restaurant, Robert’s (Aunt Mo’s beau) fave. Of course I got some crab cakes. They were so huge and lumpy and flaky and seasoned with the perfect amount of Old Bay Seasoning - the perfect Maryland way that I remember from my youth. The food was so good, I forgot to take a photo. 😜
