In the kitchen and adjoining 

 laundry, Darlene Davenport helps 

 the cooks grind corn to make meal 

 for cornbread. They also prepare 

 hopping John — black-eyed peas 

 with rice — and gingerbread. 



Meanwhile, the younger stu- 

 dents from Norfolk 

 Collegiate are at then- 

 assigned tasks. 



Rebecca Repass 

 watches her 10-year- 

 old son David care- 

 fully crack eggs into a 

 bowl. She says his 

 worst fear about the 

 trip — that he'd be 

 picked as a cook — 

 has come true. But 

 David works steadily 

 as he pushes coals 

 under the skillet full 

 of sizzling corn bread. 

 He's equally confi- 

 dant during cleanup, 

 skillfully pouring hot 

 water into an enamel bowl and 

 scrubbing the dishes clean with a 

 well-worn piece of loofah. 



Seasoned chefs Trey and A.C. 

 take a breather in the doorway of the 

 adjoining laundry. 



"In the kitchen, you burn up," 

 says A.C. "It showed you how they 

 really did it, with no air conditioning, 

 no drinks." 



Trey says it taught him respect 

 for the women who cooked from 

 sunup to sundown in heavy clothes. 

 "It's very, very hot," he says, raising 

 the hem above his ankles. "Wearing 

 these skirts restricts your move- 

 ment." 



The high schoolers have been 

 tracing their genealogy as a class 

 project, some of them back as far as 

 seven generations, says teacher 

 Linda Hodnett. 



Akiysha Scales says Redford's 

 work has been inspiring to her. In her 

 past, she found the names of slave 

 ancestors and her great-great grandfa- 

 ther, a Blackfoot Indian who lived on 

 a reservation. She also learned of a 

 black ancestor who was an inventor; 



Scott D. Taylor 



A lone artisan 

 husks broomsedge. 



he was hanged after he got a white 

 woman pregnant. 



"I didn't know him, but still, if 

 it's a part of you, it does hurt you," 

 she says. 



Fellow broommaker Felicia 

 Felton found white, black and Ameri- 

 can Indian in her family tree. "It made 

 me proud to know I had different cul- 

 tures in my background," she says. 

 Asked whether she was scared to 

 poke into her past, she says, "I was 

 ready for the good or the bad." 



Back at the cotton picking circle, 

 the Norfolk fifth-graders are taking 

 their turn with the spurs and seeds. 

 "You get calluses on your finger after 

 a while," says Redford, looking over 



the youngsters' shoulders. "Yeah, 

 this is really making me a man," says 

 10-year-old Matt Trogdon as he fidg- 

 ets with his cotton pod. 



This sends Redford into a fit of 

 laughter. Pledger smiles also; then the 

 two women suggest that the kids hold 

 on to their keep- 

 sakes from today. 



"There might 

 not even be a plan- 

 tation around by the 

 time you have 

 grandchildren," 

 says Pledger, a 

 Creswell native 

 who has worked at 

 Somerset for three 

 years. 



As the day 

 winds down, the 

 last bunch of fifth- 

 graders hastily 

 scrapes dried pith 

 and seeds from 

 gourds using oyster 

 shells. After a quick tour through the 

 house, the young artisans will soon 

 be leaving with their wares. Resting 

 for a spell in the kitchen, Pledger 

 talks with wonder of the welcome 

 awakening at Somerset. 



"This place was like Rip van 

 Winkle; that's the only way I can de- 

 scribe it," she says. "Ms. Redford, 

 she has done wonders since she came 

 here. She is giving them something 

 they will pass on to their children and 

 their grandchildren, and they'll have 

 something to pass on to another gen- 

 eration. 



"I was here before Somerset was 

 what Somerset is today," she says. 

 "When I was a kid it was an old 

 abandoned house. It was fun to run 

 all through it because it was big. 



"It's time to put that to rest," she 

 says. "I'm kind of excited about it." 



14 JULY/AUGUST 1993 



