Jackie, 68 (Part 3 of 3)

“I was born in East Baltimore, a mile above Johns Hopkins hospital on Wolfe Street. Right off of North Avenue. That’s where I was born, that’s where I was raised, that’s where I lived for 56 years. My daddy bought that house for my mother when she was in the hospital having an operation. And when he brought her home from the hospital, he brought her to the new house. Wasn’t that romantic? And then he opened a store right across the street from us and that was our grocery store. It gave us something to do while he was at work. When I was in junior high school my father finally decided to sell the grocery story. He was so kind-hearted — there was more money owed to us because a lot of people in the neighborhood worked at [Sparrow’s] Point and they would go on strike, so he always gave food and stuff to the workers. They promised they would pay him back and of course they never did, so he gave up the store.”