Innocence Within Children by Yvonne West

There was a moment I remember when I went with my mother's side of the family to visit my late great Aunt Betty and Odessa in Centerville, Maryland. On this trip was my mother, myself and younger brother along with cousins and my mother's eight siblings and their spouses. They drove in cars down there to see them. They went to see my great Aunt Betty first in her home that her late husband my great uncle Richard built. It was a single home in a rural area surrounding other houses on a road with mail boxes not like the ones in the city reading the US Postal Service painted in blue or dark green but the round with addresses printed on them. Those particular boxes have fascinated me since the age of two when heading down there to visit her with my mother and younger brother an infant. It was a land completely different from urban living in Philadelphia where it was row home neighborhoods and sometimes twin homes with city public transit buses screeching at stops to let commuters board and subway trains riding across the tracks. She lived in a home that was near a creek with water gliding downward surrounded by stones my younger brother liked to grab and toss inside. My mother and siblings sat with my Aunt Betty laughing with her and talking as the rest of us children ran outside near an abandon house next to her we found to be the home my late grandmother and her siblings including her older sister my late great Aunt Betty were born in and grew up. We looked inside the home surrounded by yellow caution tape and were ordered not to go near there since it was going to be demolished.

Afterwards, we headed not far from her to visit our great Aunt Odessa. She lived in an area similar. We entered her home approached by her small hyper active white dog who barked ran around us and jumped up and down. My Aunt Odessa fussed with him and placed him inside one of her bedrooms. A lot of us were eager to let him out but family sternly advised us not to even dare to do so. We ran outside and were greeted by a little white boy who came to say hello to my Aunt Odessa. He came by quite a bit to keep her company. The boy seemed elated to see us children in the area. All of us played with him in his yard with a swing set and sliding board attached to it as I seen in plenty people's back yards and wished my brother and I owned. His mother a white woman with short curly brown hair and glasses came out was kind to us decided to make us ice pops in Styrofoam cups where she poured a strawberry lemonade type juice inside and placed thick popsicle sticks inside and freeze them. She handed them out to each one of us and we ran around the yard and swung on his swing set devouring our ice pop in cups while she rode her tractor around the yard to cut the grass. It was a play time that brought pleasure where he was this little white kid raised in a house where he and his family got to know my late great Aunt Odessa a small black woman who lived near them. They looked out for her as they did others in their community. Most importantly welcomed her visitors who were her family. Here was this little boy who was elated to see children in the area often quiet. He saw that we were black from the city but it didn't matter much he was glad like any kid to see children in the area to socialize with. We knew he was white living in an environment completely different but as mentioned, it didn't matter we used the opportunity to play with him. That is what made us as children have innocence. Indeed there is racism but often it is hidden. When you are a child often we don't notice hatred. At times, children can see it and question it but not see it. That is the innocence within children. A child is born into the world innocent not knowing much about hatred and they see differences but they don't see color as a way to prevent them from knowing another person. They were experience a culture shock but it doesn't stop them from getting to know another child. If a person shows hatred it is obviously taught. We don't accomplish anything teaching hatred to children but instead cause division erasing the innocence from a child. This painting in watercolor shows what childhood should be innocence where children learn to get to know each other and not divide. The painting paints titled Afternoon In Centerville, Maryland is a memory

Afternoon In Centerville, Maryland. Watercolor. 2021

of the time I went to Maryland to visit my great aunts and the time we had meeting a kid who lived near by one of them. Children should be allowed to be who they are which is innocent and have the opportunity to meet people regardless of there skin color or any other difference.