Idella Parkerchapter 5

By Clair Norden

A quiet wedding and a castle

When they came back together, she had on a corsage and a big smile.“Mr.Baskin and I got married today, Idella. From now on you’ll have to call me Mrs. Baskin.”

In those early days of marriage her life revolved around her new husband.

A quiet wedding and a castle

They bought Castle Warden, a big old stone castle of a hotel right next to the famous Spanish fortress. (Castle Warden has since become Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum)

A quiet wedding and a castle

Mrs. Baskin found me a room in a house owned by Mrs. Shaw, a fine black lady who was widowed and owned a large home several blocks from the hotel, in a “colored town.” I would keep Mrs. Baskin’s car and drive over to the hotel each day to see what she needed, but there was little for me to do really.

Slowly, the trips to Cross Creek became fewer and farther between, until eventually we were living almost all the time in St. Augustine.

A quiet wedding and a castle

The way I saw it was this: These two people did the best they could for each other as far as being husband and wife was concerned, in every way. They were very happy when they were together. But Mr. Baskin was a handsome man of the world, who loved people and made his living managing hotels. He had to be dressed up all the time, seeing to his guests’ every need and being charming. Mrs. Baskin liked people too, but she also needed solitude to write. She hated being disturbed when she was writing. She hated being dressed up and loved to be outdoors hunting, fishing, or digging in the soil. Most of all, she loved Cross Creek, and did her best writing there.

A quiet wedding and a castle

It began to look to me as if marriage was not the answer to Mrs. Rawlings’ problems. She was still restless.

E. M on dutyWhen I found out that Mr. Baskin

needed help at Castle Warden, I recommended my brother, Edward Milton Thompson, called “E.M” by everyone, and another friend from Reddick, Leslie Patterson

E. M on dutyE. M worked there for most of two school terms, and

then he and Leslie Patterson bought a broken-down old Ford and set out on a trip to New York. World War II had started, and both men knew they were sure to be drafted soon. They were determined to have at least one good time before Uncle Sam called them up.

I told E.M that he should go and see mama before he left for New York, but he had his own reasoning about the trip. He wanted to be in New York before he was drafted.

“Miss Della,” he said to me, “Uncle Sam will give me leave to go home and see mama, but he won’t give me leave to go to New York. I mean to see New York before I go.”

E. M on dutySoon after, E.M was drafted.

He did have two furloughs, and he came to Reddick to see mama before he left to fight.

On the first trip home, he got married, and when we received word that he had been killed in action, there was a baby on the way. He knew about the baby from letters, and asked her to be named Joyce Ann, but never got to see her.

BernardMy boyfriend, Bernard Young, was

a real charmer. All the women admired him, so why shouldn’t I ? He was handsome, he was always dressed up so sporty, and laughed and flashed those beautiful teeth. He made me feel so good.

All this social life was a welcome change for me after those lonesome years in Cross Creek.

BernardI was so proud to introduce my

handsome, charming boyfriend to Mama. Mama took one look and called me into the kitchen. She looked me straight in the eye and said, “Della, that man is no good. Let him alone.”

It never occurred to me that Mama might be right.

BernardTo make a long story short, Bernard

and I got married.So I went and told Mrs. Rawlings that

Bernard and I were married and I wouldn’t be working for her any more.

But Bernard was not like me and my family. He was one of those people who didn’t really want to work hard to get what he wanted, and he was not dependable.

Mr. Baskin gives Bernard a job

Mr. Baskin enlisted in the army, in the last years of World War II

Mrs. Baskin had a lot of fan mail coming in during the war, especially from soldiers, and she tried to answer every single letter. Her writing took second place to these letters.

When Mr. Baskin came back, he sold Castle Warden and became manager of the restaurant and baron the beach at Marineland.

Mr. Baskin gives Bernard a job

Mrs. Baskin came to see me one day and said that Mr. Baskin would give Bernard a good job at Marineland, and I could come back and work for her at the cottage. We could live in the garage apartment. Bernard liked the idea of free rent and food, for we would both eat our meals on the job, and so we took the offer.

Mr. Baskin gives Bernard a job

Bernard was fired. He was mad as can be with Mr. Baskin, and cussed a blue streak about being fired. He tried his best to talk me into quitting Mrs. Baskin, but for once I put my foot down and refused to leave. He went back to the barbershop to work, but we were still married and we still lived at Crescent Beach.

The roadside restaurant Among Mr. and Mrs. Baskin’s best

friends in St. Augustine were Mr. and Mrs. Owens Young. The two couples often had dinner and played bridge together. The Youngs were very wealthy from what I could tell, and they had several houses, one of which was in Van Hornesville, New York.

The roadside restaurant So plans were made, and in June

of 1947 we were off to Van Hornesville.

The manager , who had just been telling Mrs. Baskin where the bathrooms were, looked directly at me and said, “You all can use them, but not the black girl.”

Summer in Van Hornesville

Just as we arrived at Mr. and Mrs. Young's house, Mrs. Baskin received word of the sudden death of her editor and friend, Max Perkins. His death shook her very much, and she could not seem to get over it.

Mrs. Baskin’s Yankee house

The new house was a pretty, pretty two-story white house, set on a narrow, winding mountain road away from everything. There were no other houses close by, or at least none in sight.

Bernard would write me letters, urging me to come home and leave her; he would take care of me. In light of the way Mrs. Baskin was drinking, Bernard's letters made good sense