they would remember back to October, 1895:
It wouldn't have cost her much.
a souvenir from the fair to take
home to College Park where a daughter
waited with her first born, my mother.
Great Grandmother Rebecca took in the sights
of the Cotton States International Exposition,
had the souvenir vendor inscribe the spoonholder:
Cosby, love from Mama, 1895. I've wondered
if she bought one for Angie and Bettie too.
Would the red maples have chattered a bit
as Grandmother strolled past the bandstand
in time to Sousa's new march, the rousing
strains of "King Cotton?" Or if she dared
to step across the grass to take in Buffalo
Bill, Annie Oakley, colorful in feats
of daring-do with horse and gun?
I suspect that Reverend Grandfather, straight
in his high collar, would have been more likely
to draw close to hear Booker T. Washington
as he delivered a landmark address, Atlanta
Compromise, a first for members of his race.
Whatever they saw, the pair walked
on smoothed earth, the scars of war no longer
testifying to battle, vain line to stand
against the swift advance of Sherman's men.
Other of my grandparents experienced
that same march near Macon, had their home saved
by virtue of a Yankee captain and Grandfather's
Masonic pin. Atlanta, Macon, the land has healed,
a new era of progress reigned,
the maple trees had grown a share of fine new rings.
Out of the acres of exposition grounds,
a park has risen to serve other years,
other generations. Red maples,
yellow poplars wave their bright leaves
each fall, new grandmothers buy trinkets
for their young, and Great-grandmother's
ruby spoonholder sits, catching the early
morning sun on a tall shelf in my den.
Written by Bettie M. Selers as Poet Laureate of Georgia
BETTIE MIXON SELLERS - SOME FAMILY HISTORY
Bettie M. Sellers has written about her father’s people, who came to America from England in 1640, and has told how they migrated from Virginia to North Carolina. Her great grandfather arrived in Oxford, Georgia in 1837. He was a builder and furniture maker. His children spread across the state. Her own father was born and raised in the rural community of Rica, Georgia west of Atlanta. They were a family of farmers, teachers, and preachers.
Her great grandfather Seale was a circuit-riding Methodist preacher who had some connection with establishing the Georgia mountain mission school that would become Young Harris College.
Bettie M. Sellers has often spoken of her maternal grandmother who came from the piedmont of Georgia to become a student at the mountain school in 1889. Her grandmother told the young Bettie stories about her life at the school. Sellers says, “Listening to my grandmother, I had no way of knowing that one day I would myself come to Young Harris College.” Sellers became a teacher of English at Young Harris College in 1965. She became Young Harris College Emeritus, Dr. Bettie M. Sellers, retiring in 1997.
