Augusta
December 22, 1948
Margaret Hamilton Hotel, Augusta, Georgia
The Tuesday night performance was the last in Raleigh. The following day, after lunch, the cast boarded busses destined for Augusta, Georgia where they would perform beginning that Saturday, Christmas day. Behind them, they left a crew equipped with pick axes that began to break up the ice surface that had been layed down a week prior and to haul the slabs outdoors to melt. Staff members packed props, lighting equipment, costumes and musical instruments which they would deliver to the Augusta venue in time for the first performance. The engineers responsible for making and producing the ice surfaces for the show moved more leisurely. They and the truck containing the ice making equipment were destined for Greenville, South Carolina where they would have a sparkling sheet of ice waiting for the cast’s arrival a week later. A second truck carrying similar equipment and manned by a staff with the same training was already in Augusta preparing for the four days of performances there.
The busses drove all afternoon and into the night, arriving in Augusta, a city of just over one-hundred thousand, on Thursday morning. For most, certainly Genevieve, this was their first visit to the Deep South which was steeped in the Jim Crow laws which were still the order of the day. While they were aware that African Americans were seated separately from the white audience in Raleigh, the cast members were likely curious about the reminders of the Civil War still visible around the city, though the conflict had been over by then for eighty-five years. Confederate flags hung from flagpoles around the city, and as they entered Augusta and made their way down Broad Street, the busses passed a seventy-five-foot-high memorial surrounded by life-size statues of Confederate Civil War generals.
Part of the cast was housed at the Margaret Hamilton Hotel, a squat four-story building, formerly a YMCA, on Green Street in close proximity to the Municipal Auditorium where Ice Vogues would perform five shows over the coming four days. Off the hotel’s first-floor lobby was a dining room where, on Christmas Day, after the show, the entire ensemble would gather for a specially planned holiday dinner. From the lobby, a curved staircase rose to the three upper floors on which the guest rooms were located. Needing more space than the hotel could offer, the rest of the cast members were accommodated in private homes in the nearby area.
We were able to sleep late after the last night’s performance and then had lunch. As soon as lunch was done we got on busses. We drove all afternoon and night. I slept off and on. I woke up when someone laughed and shouted “I thought the Civil War was over.” We had entered Augusta and the bus was passing a house with a rebel flag hanging from the porch.
We are in the hotel now. Not enough room here for everyone so some have to go to private houses. Glad to be in the hotel. My room is on the second floor and up a wide staircase that curves. Very small room but with a bathroom attached. It will be comfortable. No going down the hall.
There is a Christmas tree in the lobby like in the last hotel and pine branches along the stairway. to Only two days until Christmas now. All night on the bus I thought about you and that this is your first Christmas. Sometimes I slept but mostly I was awake and thinking about you. And even when I slept you were in my dreams. I also think about the decision I made. I try not to do that too much but I do. This time I let myself. I know they are your parents and they must love you but I will always be your mother and will always love you too.
Going to lunch with some of the others now. Everyone very hungry after the long bus ride. Then back to take a nap and rest. My dreams will be of you.
Christmas Day, 1948
Margaret Hamilton Hotel, Augusta, Georgia
Augusta’s Memorial Auditorium was virtually around the corner from the Hamilton Hotel. A small venue accommodating fewer than three thousand patrons, all of its seats were sold for the five performances of Ice Vogues. Members of the white audience were seated at floor level while Negroes attending the show were seated in the segregated balcony. The first performance was the evening of Christmas Day. After the show’s completion, the entire cast--those staying at the hotel and those boarding in private homes—would gather in the dining room of the Margaret Hamilton Hotel for a holiday dinner provided by the tour’s management.
In the hours before the first performance, I can imagine Genevieve alone with her thoughts and bundled against the weather admiring the grand houses along Green Street, some as large as the home where she grew up in Flushing, and then looking in the windows of the shops as she turned down Ninth Street where an imposing granite structure, a Baptist church, stood on the corner. Unintended and unexpectedly, she found herself in front of the Most Holy Trinity Church and, hesitating only briefly, walked through the unlocked doors.
I think often of standing in the places that my mother stood, walking in her footsteps and seeing what she might have seen. Over seventy-five years, however, things change. The Margaret Hamilton Hotel at the Northeast corner of Green and Ninth Streets was leveled in nineteen-seventy-one and replaced by a parking deck. Ninth Street itself was renamed James Brown Boulevard in honor of one of Augusta’s favorite sons. But for a few that remain, the grand houses along Green Street that Genevieve admired are no longer there, and the Baptist church bears a realtor’s “sold” sign as the edifice, abandoned years ago, continues to deteriorate as it passes to another new owner. Reassuringly, Most Holy Trinity Church still stands at the corner of Eighth and Telfair, the structure well maintained and the grounds impeccably groomed. Still, I wonder if in the middle of the day I were to pull on the handles of the church’s doors, would they open for me today as they opened for my mother on Christmas Day so many years ago.
Back in my room now.
Christmas Day and we still had a show. I went for a walk before. It has been cold and this afternoon it was raining but I walked anyway. I discovered a Catholic church. I was surprised. Someone had said there were no Catholics in Augusta only Baptists. I tried the door to the church and it opened so I went in. It was an old church and it was beautiful—arches and stained glass and a huge pipe organ. Decorated for Christmas with holly and poinsettias on the altar. I was alone in the church. In the chapel I lit a candle and I said a prayer for you. I always pray for you but being in church on Christmas Day made me feel like God could heard me better.
Everyone gathered tonight in the dining room at the hotel. There was a big dinner to celebrate Christmas because we are so far from home and no one is near their family. There was ham and turkey and both regular and sweet potatoes that were whipped and baked. Green bean and carrot casseroles and something called collards. I tried them but I didn’t like them much. Like spinach but tough and stringy. The lady serving said they had cooked for hours. Cornbread and then dessert. Different pies and something called trifle. I tried it because it was pretty to look at all layered in special glass bowls. Better than the greens but not something I liked.
There was a piano in the dining room. After dinner someone from the orchestra began to play Christmas carols and everyone sang along. I did too. Jingle Bells, Twelve Days of Christmas, Deck the Halls. Lots of carols and it was fun. At the end I think everyone was tired and it was quiet when someone started to sing The First Noel. I started to sing too but the words got caught in my throat and I got tears in my eyes. I had to get up and go to my room. No one seemed to notice. Others had come and gone all night.
Today was your first Christmas. Everyone was so excited for you. You are far away but I could feel your heart beat. You are my Christmas angel. You are always in my prayers.