Momma's House [Storytelling]

Christina Berthaud

10:30 Class

Hannah/English Comp.

Momma’s House

Reading the quote, it was said that you cannot possibly remember everything that when you deliver a story, memory of the past it is fragmented. After reading the quote, it had me thinking about my family and how close we were. I know not all families are alike, and my own family is my own memory and my own story in the book of my life.

One of the greatest memories I have is just growing up in the house with my family. My siblings and I are so close, and have all been trapped in Marie’s [my mother] house. My mother was strict and we didn’t go out too much so we had most of our fun sitting right in the house, enjoying each others’ company, cooking with my mother and creating our own games.  

 When it came to cooking all together it was always on Saturdays. We make a quick and easy meal called “Freety” made up of gryot or tassot, banan peze and piklis. This is fried pork or fried beef, fried plantains, and pickled shredded cabbage and carrots with cut up scotch bonnet peppers. I was always in the kitchen with my Haitian mother. She would sit me on the counter opposite the stove: “You need to learn, so you will watch.” Today cooking still is a family effort where we joke, dance and cook all at the same time. My job in the kitchen is to do the seasoning where I cut up red, yellow, and green bell peppers, peel garlic, chop parsley, put a block of Maggi [bouillon cube] I and a scotch bonnet pepper in the pilon [mortar and pestle] that has been in our house since the beginning of time, and mash all of the spices up and add lime juice. That has been my job for as long as I can remember.

            While being stuck in at home my brother, sister and I would create or own fun, we were quite creative children. Once we took a tape measure and twisted it in many ways stretching from one end of the apartment to the other and rolled a marble down to fall into a cup. We called this Roll-O-Rama. Another time, since there was three of us, we created ‘The Three Game’ which was basically dodge ball in a corridor of the apartment jumping over a little, but only hits below the waist counted. We also created our own board game where you were taken through a series of ghetto events and place to win a dollar in the end. Everyday home alone was a new adventure. At the end of the day when mummy came home we’d sit, eat, converse and “nou bay blag” [we joke].         

            My mother has raised us to be close, and cultured. Everything we know we’ve learned from her. My siblings and I are first generation Haitian-Americans and we will continue to keep the culture alive in us. We’ve learned to speak the language, we’ve learned to sing the songs, and we’ve learned to cook the food. Grouping up so close in my parents’ house has kept the bond between my siblings and I strong. 

We are our mother and I know my children will sit on the kitchen counter opposite the stove.