Removing the pews from the church left a wide-open space for the congregation to move around. Tables along the edges of the room held the food prepared by the women of the church for the evening's meal. A bunch of the men idled near the table, eying the choices and preparing to be first in line. A large group of the children ran in and out of the church, causing some of the older women to grab them and whisper in their ears the magic spells that slowed them down and caused them to look shame-faced at their grannies.
The serving line finally began after a blessing by the pastor. After they had plates of food, most of the family followed Sarah outside and sat on pews as they ate. When Sylvester and Daniel returned from the depot Sylvester and Sarah talked in quiet tones about him taking the train as far as Gainesville the next day, he could check on Miss Goins and make sure she had recovered from her spell. They discussed sending the two young people back to their granny, but Queen again pleaded to be able to continue school in Rosewood, and Sarah was reluctant to allow them to go when their other grandmother was so distraught.
“Maybe if you see her, Son, and she seems all right,” she said.
Daniel reported that his grandmother had boarded the train with no trouble. He had told the conductor, Mr. Bryce, of her outburst and the man, a long time employee of the line and a Cedar Key native, assured Daniel he’d watch out for his grandmother and make sure she got off the train at Gainesville.
Granny Goins had not asked Daniel again to leave with her.
“You keep a watch out for those girls. There’s nobody else to do it. Don’t you leave them, you promise me,” she told him after he helped her settle in her seat.
When he promised she seemed resigned to his staying. When he kissed her goodbye she started to weep but did not cry out, only sat staring ahead as the train left the depot.
“Oh, my,” Sarah said. “I guess the cousins will get her and take her home. Her sister will care for her, she always seems to know how to bring her back around.”
After dinner was cleared away the service began, everyone standing except for the older and ailing congregants who were given chairs at the perimeter of the hall. The minister preached his Watch Night sermon, reminding everyone of the tradition that started on New Year’s Eve, December 1862, when Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation proclamation declared that freedom for those held in slavery would begin on January 1,1863.
“A Time, to Forgive and Forget,” Preacher Bradley intoned. “We forget the old, bad times, we forgive those who sinned against us. ‘Justice will be mine’ saith the Lord, and so we forgive our enemies, we forget our past and we move on into the future, confident in God’s love and Divine Grace, given to us by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Scripture reading was Phillipians 3:1-14. Aaron Carrier played the musical interlude, then a symbolic burning of the old year was made by the preacher. The service ended with the choir singing, and an offertory was made for the needy of the congregation so that, in the preacher’s words, “The last money you spend this year will be spent in service to the Lord.”
After the service the women’s committee laid out numbered squares on the floor in a large circle. Two tables were placed inside the circle and all the cakes for the cakewalk were placed on the tables. People started to pair up and stand in a big circle around the path made by the marked squares.
“It’s time for the cakewalk!” Queen exclaimed. “Rose, be ready, here he comes!”
Daniel came over to Rose and held out his hand.
“Come be my partner,” he asked.
Rose put her hand in his and let him lead her to the circle of dancers. Queen was pulled into the circle right behind Daniel and Rose by one of the Hall boys.
“Let me tell you the rules,” Beauty announced to the crowd. “You couples need to dance your best dances, moving in a circle around the tables. When the music stops, I’ll draw a number out of this hat. If someone is standing on the number I draw, that person can start the bidding on one of our lovely cakes, made by the young ladies of this congregation,” she explained as people applauded the generosity of the church’s young women.
“The highest bidder wins the cake,” she continued, “And the young lady who made the cake will be happy to serve you your first slice.” Beauty smiled as people catcalled and whistled. “The money from the cake auction will be used to send our Youth Choir to the spring ministry in Jacksonville. Is everyone ready? Let’s start.”
Aaron Carrier was at the piano and at Beauty’s signal he began a lively, raucous tune. The dancers began to circle, each pair high stepping and showing off with dramatic flair. Sylvester and Gertrude were holding hands and laughing as they danced. Happy and John Hall were slowing dancing, she glancing at him with her head held high, laughing at him, he smiling and circling her as she turned away from him. A.J. and Minnie Lee were holding hands and swinging their arms, skipping and crashing into each other and the dancers in front of them.
Daniel had crossed hands with Rose and gently turned her back and forth as they danced forward. He twirled her slowly and pulled her close, then spun her back, crossing in front of him. They whirled and danced forward, moving gracefully around the circle with the other couples.
“Oh stop, I’m getting dizzy!” Rose laughed.
“Good, you just hold on. I have you,” Daniel grinned.
Suddenly the music stopped and everyone looked to see who was standing on one of the numbered squares. Beauty held the hat for the pastor, who reached in and pulled out a scrap of paper.
“Number five!” he called out.
There was applause and cheers when John Hall called out “Right here!”
Happy started to laugh. “This one’s going to cost you,” she teased him.
“What will you offer me for this beautiful, chocolate, delicious looking creation, made by the labor of Miss Happy Carrier?” the preacher asked, holding up Happy’s cake. It was a beautiful cake, with glistening chocolate frosting and three layers, between which Happy had spread raspberry preserves.
“Twenty five cents,” Mary Hall offered.
“One dollar!” John Hall called out. The crowd gasped at his extravagance. “No, wait, two dollars!” he cried, smiling at Happy, who looked proud and embarrassed at the same time.
“You’re bidding against yourself!” the preacher exclaimed. “Does anybody want to go higher? Anyone?” he asked. John Hall was smiling wide, looking at Happy.
“Sold, two dollars!” the preacher cried, and everyone applauded as Beauty brought the cake over to John Hall. He stepped over to Happy and held his arm out to her, smiling. She rested her hand in the crook of his elbow and allowed him to lead her to a table on the edge of the room, smiling and bowing as people clapped for the couple.
The music began again and the remaining couples started dancing, showing off and fooling. Sylvester was singing along with the music and causing everyone to laugh at his antics.
Daniel and Rose kept whirling, dancing, Rose laughing as Daniel twirled and danced around her. Suddenly the music stopped: “Number seven!” the preacher called.
Everyone laughed when Sylvester called out “It’s my lucky number!”
Another couple, however, was standing on the number seven square, and the coconut cake up for bid quickly went for seventy five cents to the eldest Hall boy, who escorted the cake’s smiling baker to a table.
Round after round the dancers moved, and every time the music came to a halt there was shouting and laughing as cake after cake was bid on. Finally the preacher called “Number eleven!” and when Rose looked down, she and Daniel were standing on the number.
As soon as the preacher held Rose’s cake up for bidding, Sylvester called out “Fifty cents, that is a good looking cake!”
Rose smiled at him, glad he’d bid right away and not left her waiting for someone to start.
“One dollar,” Daniel called. There was a murmur of surprise from the crowd; a dollar was a half-day’s wage, and quite a price for a young man to pay for a cake.
“Dollar and a quarter,” Sylvester called, a wide grin on his face.
“Dollar and a half,” Daniel immediately bid.
“Two dollars,” Sylvester bid up.
“Five dollars,” Daniel bid, and the crowd gasped.
“Five dollars! I can’t afford that!” Sylvester yelled, grinning.
“Daniel, don’t bid so high, for less than a dollar I can buy the ingredients and bake you another one,” Rose whispered to him, tugging on his arm.
“Five dollars, sir,” Daniel told the preacher, smiling down at Rose.
“Five dollars, going once, going twice; anybody else so devoted to this church they’ll pay more for this cake? No? Then this cake is sold, five dollars, to Mr. Daniel Goins, and the Youth Choir thanks you, son!”
The crowd was applauding as Rose and Daniel crossed the floor to the pastor and Daniel took possession of the Lady Baltimore cake.
Rose was proud and appalled in the same moment: proud her cake went for such a high bid but appalled that Daniel had spent so much money.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she told him.
”Oh, yes I did,” he said, smiling, and led Rose to a table next to Happy and John Hall.
The two couples traded slices from their cakes and all four declared them both delicious. Queen and Sarah joined them, asking to try Rose’s cake, and then begging Happy for some of hers when she was put out at not being asked first for a sample. Sylvester and Gertrude brought a strawberry jam cake that Gertrude had entered and more slices were cut and passed around.
When the cakewalk ended, the younger children and Beauty joined the family group and finished off the rest of the three cakes. The pastor announced that twenty-five dollars had been raised for the youth group’s trip, and there was applause for all the young women who had baked entries.
After the cakewalk there was the dessert hour when all the cakes were finished off, along with other desserts brought by members of the congregation, and coffee was served. Another musical interlude announced the beginning of the Preacher’s second sermon, “A Call to Begin Anew.” He started with a reading from Isaiah and ended with a call for discipleship and a benediction.
The clock was watched as its long hand approached midnight. Cheers and applause broke out as the bells rang twelve times, and Preacher Bradley offered a prayer for the health and prosperity of the congregation. One more collection was taken.
“The first money you spend this year is spent doing the lord’s work,” he reminded everyone, and the members of the Carrier family each gave one of the silver dollars Sylvester passed out to them.
The night was still and deeply cold as everyone stepped out on the road towards home. Wrapped in quilts, the smaller children rode home in the wagon with Sarah, Roy and Marlene. The three couples that had walked to the party walked home together with Queen and Beauty in the chill air, the bright full moon creating enough light to easily see the road winding like a tunnel through the dark forest.
Daniel and Sylvester carried lanterns that they occasionally whipped around in a circle, laughing as Happy complained about the danger.
“We’ve thrown baseballs on fire, and you’ve caught a few,” Sylvester teased her. “There’s nothing to worry about with this lantern.”
“Why would you ever burn a baseball?” Rose asked.
“Fireball,” the men answered in unison.
“Crazyball,” Happy said, shaking her head.
“You get a few buckets of turpentine,” Sylvester explained. “A few torches burning, and you need a rag wrapped around your hand. Dip the ball in turpentine, touch it to the torch and then throw it in a hurry! You can play baseball in the dark. We do it all the time out at the baseball diamond, especially when it starts getting dark so early.”
“I can’t wait for baseball season,” Daniel said as he whirled his lantern in a circle. “We have a real good team here, the Rosewood All Stars. We’re so good we play in Gainesville and even Jacksonville, sometimes.”
“Now, you all aren’t any better than the Gainesville teams,” John Hall began, and soon a good-natured argument raged regarding various local players.
Rose was having such a good time listening to the laughter and talk that she didn’t notice just when Daniel took her hand and tucked it in to his coat pocket. She finally realized they were not only holding hands but were squeezed close, arms entwined and Daniel leaning in to her side. As they approached the house she started to pull away from him but Daniel held on to her and hung back as everyone else went up the walk and on to the porch.
Queen turned to look for Rose, but when she saw her and Daniel together Queen just smiled and went inside with the others.
Daniel turned to Rose, leaned over and kissed her, once quickly and then again, slowly.
“There,” he said.
Still holding her hand, he led her in to their brightly lit, warm family home.
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From the Gainesville Sun, p. 2, January 1, 1923:
LOCAL KU KLUX CLAN
WILL MARCH THROUGH
CITY STREETS TONIGHT
Townspeople Invited to turn out
and Inspect Clansmen in
Their Full Regalia
Gainesville citizens will have an opportunity to view the local
Ku Klux Klan organization in full regalia when they march
through the streets of this city, according to an announcement
received from the Klan Sunday. Members of the organization
will march by the north side of the square about 9:15 p.m.,
the announcement stated, and everyone is invited to witness
the demonstration.
The announcement received from the Klan follows:
Announcement To Public
The local Ku Klux Klan will pass through Gainesville this
Monday night, January 1, 1923, about 9:15 p.m., by the north side
of the public square in full regalia. Permission has been granted by
the proper city officials for this occasion. This will be a peaceable
demonstration. Ladies and children as well as men may view the
Kavalkade as it passes. The destination of the procession is a location
known only to ‘the Klan’. The public as a whole is WARNED not to
try to follow the procession after it has passed out of the public square,
and not to attempt to obstruct or interfere in any way with any individual
KLANSMAN, for they will defend themselves against any encroachment
whatsoever.
Signed,
ALACHUA KLAN 46 OF GAINESVILLE, FLA
