Interview: Sharlene Anderson Royalty

     

          I have always known that my grandmother Sharlene Anderson Royalty was a remarkable woman, but until recently I knew very little about who she really was. After interviewing her, I discovered truly how little I knew. Learning more about her gave me a new perspective on who she is and also changed the way I view her. For 17 years I have seen her as my "Mimi", but after our interview I started to view her as a human being, in many ways similar to myself.

      My grandmother was born on September 5th 1935 in Lakecreek Texas. She was born to Eugenia Mable and Benjamin Lycurgus Anderson. Benjamin Anderson (my great grandfather) was a farmer and a part time mail carrier. My grandmother's first 9 years were spent in North East Texas on her family’s farm. She told me of how her mother would pick cotton in the fields during the day leaving her in charge of caring for her little brother. Starting at the age 5 she attended school at first in a one room school house and later in a larger 12 grade school.  As we were discussing her early years she had a lot to say about her life on the farm. Some of her fondest memories are of playing house inside her family’s hen house and of her pet rooster “Charlie” whom she just couldn't stomach eating for dinner. While on the farm her family didn't have many of the luxuries we take for granted today. They had no electricity, and no indoor plumbing.  She said that a battery was their way of powering the lights and their only source of electricity. When my grandmother was nine years old her family was evicted from their farm after a bad crop season. Her family then left behind farm life and moved down into the nearby village where her father became a full time mail carrier. She said that her father had somehow saved up enough money to buy them a house in the village which finally brought them indoor plumbing. 

My grandmother had three siblings, two of which were 13 years older than her. She told me that she had trouble adjusting to the arrival of her youngest brother. He was 5 years younger than her and she said that she felt as if he just appeared out of nowhere one day, suddenly occupying her old baby bed. Apart from the company of her siblings she was incredibly isolated. She told me that especially during the summer months she had relatively no interaction with the outside world. In her own words she "lived in a pretend world" for the first nine years of her life.   In her "pretend world" she loved to play with dolls and most of all she loved to color in her precious coloring books. What made her coloring books so special was because Christmas for her family was not what Christmas entails for my own family today. A coloring book was often all she would get for Christmas apart from a few fruits in her stocking. Hearing about this aspect of her life made me realize how much I take for granted in my own. My grandmother has always been an incredibly generous Christmas present giver, and after hearing what Christmas was like for her as a child it gave new importance to the gifts I have received from her over the years.  

          During her High school years my grandmother moved from her familiar little village school with 44 students in her class to Brazosport high school with a class of 177 students. She struggled with her new high school and every night, she told me that she would dream of walking into her old high school where everyone was happy to see her.  She said that her salvation came from her 3rd period choir, where she met new friends and began to feel comfortable in her new surroundings.  I asked my grandmother if there was anything she had wanted to do with her life and she replied that she had wanted to be a music teacher. She told me that she was enrolled in North Texas State University but she never attended. This was because of James Walter Royalty (my grandfather) whom she met in January of her senior year of high school and by February that same year after just six weeks, the two were engaged. My Papa was 27 at the time of their marriage and they were married on my grandmother’s 18^th birthday, they had a 9 year age difference. My grandmother told me a story about when she was in school showing off her wedding ring. Her teacher asked her who the lucky man was and she said "Jimmy Royalty" her teacher then replied "That old man!" It blows my mind to think of how my very own grandmother was married at almost the age I am now. I feel like a baby myself but I think that she was incredibly brave to enter into marriage at so early an age. The truly amazing thing is that my grandparents were married for about 55 years, until 2008 when my Papa passed away. Their love story inspires me! 

          After my grandparents were married they lived through very trying circumstances. My grandfather was a welder and after working for his father and various other companies he endeavored to start his own business. What eventually became "Royalty Welding” started off as a very small one man business. In the process of building their business my grandparents faced many challenges but they overcame them together! I am so grateful to both my grandparents for all of their hard work. I would not have had the life I do if they had not persevered. In later years my grandparents were blessed with abundance and were able to live in comfort spoiling us grandchildren with love and presents. 

          Growing up I only saw a fraction of the life my grandparents lead but through my grandmother I am now able to see a full image of the people they truly were.Though their lives may seem uneventful or common to others, to me, their lives are utterly fascinating. I am who I am because of who they were.  throughout the experience of interviewing my grandmother I learned the great importance of taking the time to ask others about their own story, and not only to ask, but to listen and learn. I am so thankful that I got the chance to hear and record my grandmother’s story.

Written word cannot fully express  the charms of oral history so for the moments of our interview that simply could not be expressed with words, below is a recording of the entire interview. ^-^