
{"id":16942,"date":"2011-03-24T10:43:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T14:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=16942"},"modified":"2011-03-24T10:43:40","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T14:43:40","slug":"aunt-roxie-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/03\/24\/aunt-roxie-1940\/","title":{"rendered":"Aunt Roxie, 1940"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A Thousand Words<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>By Jock Lauterer<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/03\/24\/aunt-roxie-1940\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/AuntRoxie1940.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"370\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/AuntRoxie1940.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/AuntRoxie1940-113x139.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/AuntRoxie1940-91x113.jpg 91w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nSeveral years ago, when I asked my photography students to bring to class a single meaningful family snapshot, Kafi Robinson, then a senior journalism major from Oxford, turned in a photo of her great grandmother, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aunt Roxie,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who worked for years as a maid \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for this rich white family,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d according to Kafi. Following her graduation, Kafi has stayed in touch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and recently brought me a tiny 1-by-2-inch proof of a studio photo made in 1940. In the faded, cracked photo, Roxie Royster-Johnson holds her 6-year-old daughter, Carolyn Johnson (Kafi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grandmother). This is what Kafi wrote about the picture:<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Her eyes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just something about Gran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes (Gran is what all of the great-grandkids called Roxie). Her eyes jump to the forefront of this photo, something like that well-known photograph of Sharbat Gula in National Geographic. Gran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite as intense as Gula\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, but both photos leave you wondering the same questions about their lives: What she was doing right before the photo was taken? Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s she from? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her ethnicity? Is she married? Is she happy? &#8230; What do you think?<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For me, I think Gran had something serious on her mind right before the photo was taken. She tried to perk up a little for the sake of a nice family photo; she pulled her hair back and fastened the edges with a small, but noticeable barrette, pressed the collar of her top and had her daughter (my grandma) put on her nice Sunday pea coat. Still, she was unable to hide the fact that something was on her mind. Maybe she was worried about Pop, my great-grandpa. He may have had to work late guarding the tobacco plant the evening before and hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made it home yet. Maybe she was a little stressed about bills, knowing that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make enough money cleaning those large houses on College Street. Gran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face lies there emotionlessly, but her eyes tell an entire story \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 not sure what it is though \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left up to our interpretation (and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the beauty of old photos!).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>A THOUSAND WORDS<\/strong><br \/>\nDo you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/sections\/a-thousand-words\/\">More &#8220;A Thousand Words&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several years ago, when I asked my photography students to bring to class a single meaningful family snapshot, Kafi Robinson, then a senior journalism major from Oxford, turned in a photo of her great grandmother, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aunt Roxie.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-thousand-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16945,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16942\/revisions\/16945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}