Published: July 09, 2009 01:23 pm      

FEATURE: A tale of two sisters

"Where'd you get that angel from, Minnie?" asked a young man in the street. "Y'all stand back now, that's my baby sister," Minnie replied.

Sister looking after sister. That's how it's always been for ninety-four-year-old Minnie Hines and ninety-year-old Catherine Aaron, who both grew up in Live Oak. The sisters have seen the face of change in Suwannee County and have undergone a few changes themselves since first moving here in 1926.

"Lord, help me to remember this history of how I got to Live Oak," said Aaron as she stood in the center of her living room trying her best to recall memories of a distant past.

All the while, Hines sat on a purple couch, thumbing through a box of personal photos as she quipped, "Wasn't I somebody."

"We came in a four-wheel truck," Aaron said. Once their eldest brother Sam found work at the Live Oak Perry and Gulf Railroad, he sent word to their brother Charlie to whisk the family away from a life of sharecropping in Quitman, Ga., Aaron said.

Live Oak "was a valued place to live in," Aaron said. "They had places for grown folks and young people to go."

One such place was "The Hill," a hangout for blacks located in the heart of town, according to the sisters.

"It had a café on one end, then the drugstore, and a pool hall, and two undertaker offices...all black-owned," Aaron said.

In the rear of the drugstore was a dance hall, and inside was a piccolo or a Harlem jukebox, she said.

"You could play three records for a quarter."

The sisters grew up in a time before television, but remembered having a phonograph.

"B.B. King, baby, that was my favorite record," Hines said.

On one occasion she recalled getting all dressed-up with her sister to go see King perform in Lake City.

"Honey, I was dressed -- I looked like a movie star, baby," Hines said.

However, they couldn't get a ride and didn't make the show.

"I had a good time in my young days," Hines said. "I ain't worried 'bout the world now."

Life wasn't all fun for the sisters, however. They grew up working a variety jobs.

"I've done a lot of work around here," Hines said.

As children the sisters worked fields digging for peanuts, strung tobacco, and even remembered watching their parents pick cotton. Later, Aaron baby-sat and worked at the Pressing Club laundry, while Hines served as a cook, cleaned houses and worked as a maid at the Suwannee Hotel.

Hines never had any children, although she married more than once.

"She has a heap of God-children," said Aaron, smiling at her sister. "Minnie claims children -- everybody's children, children of all colors," Aaron said.

Catherine Aaron was married to Frank C. Aaron in 1943, until he passed away in 1980. She has two children, daughter Florine Wilson, and a son who has passed away named Virgil McNeal. She has eight grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Nowadays, Hines and Aaron live together in a modest home on family property surrounded by their kin.