Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hey, Human podcast. This is episode 456, and my guest is Jewel Chambers. Jewel was raised in rural Mississippi, and you've probably heard of her famous siblings, the Chambers Brothers. They had a huge hit, The Time Has Come Today, and maybe you've heard of the family gospel band, the Chambers Family Choir. They have music throughout the family for certain.
I was introduced to her through Bob Zaw, who has been on this show, and he told me about Jewel and said you have to to talk to her. Her life story is incredible. And she's very kind and brought me into the house, and we sat down in her living room and had this conversation. So I'm really excited for you to hear it. And she shares stories from her childhood and nearly a century on the planet. Check out heyhumanpodcast.com for links and to learn more about my
guests in the show. Check out susanruth.com to learn more about me and my other artistic endeavors, including coming to see The First, my short film. The next festivals that it will be playing, Seattle Film Festival, Chicago Horror Film Festival, and a few more. It's gonna be at Shorts Corner and Cannes. And, yeah, all all those things are on susanruth.com, so definitely check that out. You can find me on social media under susanruthism, and my music is on Spotify, Apple Music,
Amazon Music, wherever you get your music. It's probably on there. Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast on Apple or wherever you are listening to your podcast. And thank you for listening. Be well, be kind, be love. Here we go. Joel Chambers, welcome to Hey Human. Thank you. Thank you for having me in your home. Thank you for being here. Absolutely. I like to start these conversations with taking all the way back to the
beginning of life and your childhood. Tell me about where you grew up and what childhood was like. Well, my earliest memories let me let me start here. It was 10 of us siblings. And I was the first girl born. And my mom was sickly, and she didn't think she would make it. And, I mean, from a little girl about I remember, I guess, about six years old, she told me that she didn't think she would live, you know, to see her children get grown. And she wanted me she didn't want us separated.
She wanted to make sure that we stayed together. And so she taught me, you know, how to really become a woman. I got married at 15. I mean, I'm jumping way ahead, but that's the type of upbringing, you know, that that I had. Of course, my being six years old, the family had not grown as, you know, to be a set of 10.
The one memory that stands out in my mind as a little girl and my mama being so sickly all the time, we had gone to, my grandmother's grandmother's house, and our mode of traveling was mule and wagon. And, anyway, we got ready to come home and and my sister let me let me back up and tell you how the order that of children, you know, that my mom had. Three boys, two girls, three boys, two girls.
And other words so we were at we were at grandma's house and, mama was not feeling well and it was time to go. And my sister Bonnie, she wanted to, you know, she wanted we both wanted to stay. But mama said, no. You have to go because I don't feel good. And so I was upset, of course. We got home, and mama kept getting sicker and sicker at you know, the closer we got home. And daddy helped her out of the wagon when we got home because she had to urinate. And I was helping him, you know.
And then as I was holding her arm, I felt it felt like an egg went down her arm and passed my hand and she just went limp and I thought she had died. I took off running and screaming and saying my mom is my mom is dead, my mom is dead. In the area that that we lived in, we were the only blacks in that area. Mama was she was, well loved by everyone. The, man's property that we lived on, he drove a truck that hauled bill bills of cotton to the gin and stuff.
Well, I'm running down this road about three country miles, if you know what country miles are. And I'm running. I'm just screaming. No. I don't have no mother. My mother's dead. My mother's dead. And so the the ladies that was close by and I'm passing their houses and I didn't know it at the time, but they just took off. I think one lady, she she was milking her cow and, because we were in the country, of course, you know.
She was milking her cow. She set her her bucket down and they all gathered at mama's house. And come to find out my mama was not dead. So the man that the place that we lived on, he got in his truck and he overtook me. And he told me, he said, your mom your mother's not dead. And I said, yes. She is. Yes. She is. So he persuaded me to get in a truck, and he took me back home. But and the doctor said she had had a nervous breakdown. But, anyway, I was glad that I that
I was there with her. Well, I was about six years old, and I was born in '34. I'm 91 now. You said it was four boys first, and then you came along? She had us the order she had us had three boys Three boys first. And two girls Okay. Okay. Three boys and two girls. So you were And I'm the first born girl. So you're the fourth oldest. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That took me a minute also to do that kind of math. And what city are we in at this point? Let's see. I think that it was called Forest, Mississippi.
Okay. Because later on, we moved to another area. It was called Carthage, Mississippi. I feel like it wasn't uncommon in at least, especially in those days, to have multiple children. That was pretty much normal. Right? Well, yeah. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. Was your family very tight and and close? Yes. Very tight. We were very poor, very poor. And but mama always she always told us, she said, you you you children may not have what other children have, but always remember you have each other.
And there was a lot of love in the family. And that's why she wanted if anything should happen to her if she passed away, she did not want us separated, you know, because usually, when there's a large family or if there are any children at all and the parents die, you know, they they people take them and, you know, and raise them up. But she didn't want that to happen. She wanted us to always be together. Yeah. And we have always been a very close knit family. It's only six of us
now. We've lost, four brothers. So but all of the sisters are still here and two brothers. And when we when we get together, it's just like we can see each other today and hug and go on. And tomorrow, we see each other. We still hug and go on. You know, it's just it's just always been a close knit family. When you get together with each other, is it like you're little again? What we usually do, we just reminisce.
Yeah. We just have a lot of fun, just talking about old times and the things that happened and how, you know, how we survived and and, when my dad was living. And we used to talk about things that happened, and it would upset him because it was not pleasant, you know. And he was my dad was he was uneducated, so he was he was really a poor provider. And so we had some stories, you know, to tell. And we were but it was fun because we we like I say, we survived. You know? But for him to hear it, it
upset him. And so we had to stop when we would get to all get together. We had to stop talking about things, you know. Sure. You know. So Were you expected as the first girl to be a surrogate mom, especially if your mom was unwell? Well, I didn't realize, you know, at the time, I didn't like the idea that I had to do everything like that. And I learned to cook when I was, like, six years old. I remember, standing on a wooden box, you know, to be up at this at the counter.
I would prepare the food, but my mom would always put the seasoning in. I I didn't know how to do that. But it's just what she instilled, you know, in in me. You're she always say, you're the oldest girl. You're the oldest girl. You know? So you have to you have to take care of, you know. And she told my siblings, she says, Jewel is going to if something she always used that term, if something happens to me. She would never say
if I die. She just say, if something happens to me and I'm no longer with you all, Jewel is to take over, and you all better mind her. So one of my brothers right now, he calls me sister mom. Mhmm. Lester, you know, he calls me sister mom. We always lived on a farm. My dad sharecropped. He was a really, really good farmer. I mean, whatever whatever seed he planted, it it just flourished. I mean, he was he was a farmer
from his heart. You know, he grew the biggest, I mean, humongous watermelons, and he would always save the seed from, you know and we he did sugarcane. His sugarcane was the tallest. Peanuts, just a bunch, just a humongous amount of peanuts on a vine. He was just a farmer. And everywhere, everywhere they lived, and, you know, which was a lot of places, he always left fruit trees. I always planted a fruit tree. He and my mom got married. My mom, her mom did not want her when she was born.
She was, you know, born out of wedlock, and so she always mistreated my mom a lot really, really bad. In the area that they lived in, you know, the man that that we figured raped her, you know, she mama would never talk about it. She would never talk about it. So the the message that we got came from hearsay. You know? But he lived this her dad lived in the in the same area
that my grandmother lived in. And as mama grew up, she was just, like, alienated because grandma Pearlie, her name was Pearlie, she was very mean to my mom as the story goes, and this is what mama told us. And And it was your mother who was raped or your grandmother was raped? My grandmother. Okay. And my mother. Okay. Incest. Mhmm. Other words, my oldest bro my my oldest brother is also her brother. You know? Yeah. Incest.
How they met, well, after she had her first son, Major, she I guess, I think when that happens, it it releases some kind of demonic thing into children, you know. And they and then, you know, so she became a little promiscuous. And so she was pregnant with her second son. She was seven months pregnant. I think it's trauma, not demons. I think it's just absolute trauma, you know? Well, I it's bad. Yeah. It's a very bad situation. But but, anyway, she was seven months pregnant with the second son.
And my grandma had put her out and she was at somebody's house. And my dad, who was thirty years older than my mom, knew the people that she was living with, and he had come to visit. Well, in the meantime okay. He's thirty years older than my mom. Mhmm. My mom was born, 1910. He was born 1880. He was visiting there and my mom, she said she was washing the dishes or something. And he was sitting there at the table
just looking at her. And she was said she said to herself, why this old man keep looking at me? You know, just keep looking at me. Well, he had had two wives previous. Both had died. So he had two boys by the first one and a girl by the second marriage. And so he's looking for a woman to raise his children. And he's watching my mom, she says, and and so he, you know, and he's thinking she'd make a good mother for my children because I don't know. Just something about the way she carried herself.
And so that's how they met. Three days after after they met, they got married. Three days. Your mom probably thought, here's somebody that at least I'll be able to have a roof over my head and I'll be able to eat and survival. Yes. That's exactly what she felt because she'd been like an outcast all of her life. You know, so she feels well, he, you know, he he can I show you a picture of my dad? Sure. Absolutely. Well, this is just like one shot of him here. That's my mom.
Aw. That's so Uh-huh. And this is a book that I had started making long time ago that I never got it finished. There's all of us together here. Oh, wow. What humans can endure. I know. That's, that's my, my brother, her and her brother. Did he have any difficulties having been the result of incest? I don't think so. I've never heard of any incidents. And these are just part of his offspring. He had four children. Incidents. And these are just part of his offspring. He had four children.
My dad, he, you know, he came out he came in at the tail end of slavery. Mhmm. You know? So he had no education. It didn't so education didn't mean anything to him. Well, sharecropping was basically slavery still. But he was a good father. He never he as, you know, he was with us and that's important. He he was he never left us. Now, mama said he left one time. And he, and he got down the road a ways. And he thought, I can't leave her. And he came back and he never left again.
And, you know, so, you know, just having a father around, even if he's not a good provider, it's just good to have a father. He was not mean. I never heard him and mama Arga. They never had and and I'm sure she he gave her plenty of reasons, you know, because he used to pull us out of school to, go and work in, you know, in the field for other people. And especially after, you know, we got all got big enough to work.
And, you know, and the joy of having a big family when when things were rationed, you know, like they had this little Oh, the rationing during World War II. Ration. Yeah. Yeah. And they issued some kind of books with little coupons or something in it. Mhmm. Well, he never was able to like, for I think sugar, they sugar, you had to have those coupons to get sugar. And he had a whole bunch.
And he used to trade them off, you know, to because he wasn't able to buy sugar, you know, so it was a plus for him, you know. So and and these are some of the things that we would laugh and talk about when we would get together and, they would just irritate him and stuff. And and, you know, like like I said, you know, he'd pull us out of the out of the out of school and until mama, would just say she called him mister Chambers. And he called her dear. That was I never heard him call her
anything but dear. Her name was Victoria. And and because of his age, she called him mister Chambers, always mister Chambers. He he he was just he was precious. Food, you know, like sometimes food was not available in our house, and just a little bit of food, but my mom was able to, a little bit of nothing and make a
whole lot of something out of it. We remember one time she'd had like a cup, she would take one cup of peas, you know, dried peas and make a whole big old pot of peas and we'd wad a lot of liquor, pot liquor, we called it, you know, and make cornbread. And that's what we would eat. And these are the things that we would laugh about, you know, when we get together. There were times when there was no food. And there was one time it was during season where watermelons were in season.
And my mom didn't like watermelon. And we worried about that. And because we worried what was she was what was she gonna eat and stuff. It was no problem for us because we love watermelon. But, you know, but, you know, we we never held it against him for not being a good provider because, I guess, because of the love that, you know, that we had for him. Because he he never you know, like, if he gave us if he chastised one of us, you know, his this was his spanking.
It's over. You know? But my mom, she would get a switch and go, you gonna do that again? You know? I mean and she would just go, oh. But her weapons were terrible, you know? I don't I don't ever remember getting one because I was always, you know, you know, I was just raised to it's kinda like being charged type thing. So she was such a sweetheart. Everybody loved her. She raised us up with, I guess, I call them sayings. It would be like, for stealing, if it's not yours, don't take it.
If you make your bed hard, you're the one have to lay in it. A cow needs his tail to fan flies with more than one time. Don't burn the bridge that takes you across because you might need that bridge to get back a little. You know? And every little saying that she had had a meaning. You know, dad had a few. You know, his was always the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And that's how we lived. You know, that's, you know, that was our way of, of living.
Did they have conversations with the kids about, obviously, you were living in segregated South, how how do parents prepare kids for something like that? How did black parents prepare black children in that era? And, I mean even today, obviously, those conversations have to be made. How did was that dealt with in the family? And also with the specter of World War II and what was going on, how did how did the kids How did you all deal with all of that? It it was not easy. We have never
known prejudice. Never. Even in the South, we were just raised that people are people. And as the old saying go, we were raised to stay in our place. What does that mean? It means that if, you know, if if they wanna be called mister whoever I'm miss, we did it. And that was just part of living. We used to have to walk to school, and there there was one house that we used to pass.
And it had had children, and they were always they would be waiting for us, you know, so they could taunt us and call us the n word and stuff. And we just, you know, they never they never harmed us, but we just ignored it. That's we were just taught to what dad had a saying is is he says, when it comes to fighting, it's better to say, yonder he goes than here he lies. That's one of the words. And he says, it doesn't make you a coward,
but you use common sense. But he did also tell us, don't let somebody pass the first lick because you may not get a chance to pass the second lick. But we just always we avoided fights always with not only with the white children, but also the black children. We just always liked peace. They liked peace in the family. Other words, you know, at that time, you know, like if we went into an establishment, the restroom was colored only. Well, we didn't try to go into the white room.
That's called staying in your place. You do you do you do the way you what's expected of you to do, and they like you for it. They, you know we daddy was he was had a lot of respect for, you know, from white people. I don't remember the story, but but he told it. He didn't take nothing. Other words, he was short-tempered, but he stayed in his place. But if anybody riled him up, I don't care what color you were. My dad was part Indian. I don't care if you riled him up.
He was a force to deal with. And so there was a story that he had somebody had gotten in his face with something, whatever, and he had struck a white person. And of course, they came for him and he, you know, made sure that, I was told that we were all safe in the house, but he got his shotgun. So when they rode, when they pulled up on their horses or whatever to get him, he didn't run. He just told me, he said, okay, You got you came for me, but one of one of you guys gonna die.
And nobody wanted to die. But what happened, he gained the respect of people in you know? And so no they always called him uncle George. Nobody never messed with him after that. He's he stood his ground. He got the first lick in. He got the yep. He did. He let them know he was not afraid to die. But he said, But what are you what what are you going to die with me? And when it comes to that, nobody wants to die. They not ready to die.
But but, anyway, as so as we grew, we grew up and, you know, and it got to be when it got to be all 10 of us and everything. We always sang. Just, I mean, my mom, she was, she traveled around with like a community choir or something like that. Look, they sang the songs using the do, re, mi notes. They did, you know, me, do, me, do, do, la, sa, do, la, sa, you know. They that's how they, you
know, would sing the songs. And they would do it in the in the note form, and then they would do it in the word form, you know. So she my mom had a really good voice. Daddy could sing too, but he didn't he didn't like singing as much as mama did. But we we used to sing. We would come out of the field, and we would wash our feet from the you know, you you of course, you work with no shoes on.
And we would, you know, draw up a they call it a foot tub, where we washed our feet before we went to bed. But we would just sing at night. We would just sing and sing. And and the only music that we had was the radio. And we used to listen to the Grand Old Opera. And we'd learn all of those songs, you know, low and lonely, sad and blue, you know, just those kind of, you are my sunshine. And we would sing. And I guess mama taught us how to harmonize, but we all have an ear
for notes, you know, like Perfect pitch. Perfect pitch. And I mean and right now, to hear somebody off pitch, it's like, you know, you got a picture on the wall and that picture's, like, crooked. Well, that's the same feeling we get when we hear somebody singing and they're not on right on that perfect, you know. It's just it's God given to, you know. And we used to sing and we used to at night.
And, I remember being we were told by some people that, could hear us singing that it sounded like angels because the harmony was so perfect. And it and it at night, it traveled. The sound traveled, you know, over the treetops or where you know? Really, that's how my brothers became the Chambers Brothers, be well, because they had that perfect harmony. And love went with it, you know, just love for people. And they wrote a lot of songs and stuff. But but that it that's how it all started.
We left after we left, Mississippi and we came to California. The whole family? Not altogether. My brother Douglas was the first to leave because, our other brothers, the two that, you know, that dad had by the other wife, well, they especially one of them, his name was Matthew. He stayed in touch with us all the time when we even when we were there in Mississippi. And every once in a while, we would see him coming. And he came to California first.
And then after he came to California, then Douglas, we called him Doug, he, Doug, came. And then, I got married at 15, and I had one son. And my husband, he came to California. How did you meet him? My husband? Well, we were just kids together. Mind you, I was only 15 when I got married. Baby. But I didn't feel 15. I felt grown because of You've been raising up children. Yeah. Yeah. And, we went to school together. He liked me. He was a, you know, he was a nice boy. That's
how we phrase it. He was a nice boy. In other words, you know, he he was just a nice boy. He was not trying to, you know but anyway, I know what you're saying. And anyway, I couldn't stay in school because, I had had gotten to the eighth grade. I couldn't go to high school because they just were not my parents were not they could not afford for me to go to high school there in the South. Are you a depraved, go to high school? Well, you gotta have clothing. Oh, I see.
And that peer pressure has has always been there and I guess will always still be there. And if you don't have clothes to wear, you know, you you can't go. As we as we was growing up, it's it's children. The only clothes that we got were hand me downs. And they came from white people. They love mom and daddy enough that they, you know, there I remember there was some lady. We used to look up and we'd see the wagon coming and it would be her. And she would have a whole lot of clothing.
I remember one time, she came in the bunch of clothing that she brought us. There was a red coat and it ended up fitting me. Well, I was the darkest skin in the family. Everybody else was a shade lighter than me. You know how black people are. We got all different shades of color and stuff. Well, I was the darkest one. I got teased by daddy used to tell me, he said, Blacker the berry, sweeter the juice. That was
his saying, you know. But anyway, I ended up with that red coat and did I get teased. Aw. I was I thought it looked amazing on you. Well, it probably did, but well, anyway, I I had a yellow coat and all my friends made fun of me, so they called me big bird. Yeah. Well, I you know, they tease Kids are gonna be mean no matter what. Yep. Kids kids are gonna be they tease me, you know, because of the darkness of my skin. They related the red coat to a monkey.
You know, like, you know, like, you know, monkey and, you know anyway. And I hated that coat, but it was so cold. It was so cold down there, and the coat was really thick, nice winter coat, but it kept me warm. And I just I had to endure the, the TB and Ts about it. But They were just jealous. Jealous. Probably jealous. A warm coat and they Yeah. And you look good. But I getting back to that's that's how I met my husband.
I graduated, like, twice from the eighth grade and, and then we got married. How old was he? He was six years older than me. When I was 15, he was like 21. And he had a he didn't like farming. He had a good job. I was a virgin when I married him. And he was just he was a really not really nice guy. We had our first child. I was 16 when, you know, I made 15 on the January 9, and we got married on the March 26. I had my first son September eleventh of nineteen fifty.
So, you know, we we, you know, we we didn't get pregnant right away. I gave birth to him at home. And, that was during the time when women had babies. You know, for some reason, they thought you should stay on the bed for three days. Anyway, but that's how I met him. He was good. But he came to California, got a job washing dishes, and then he sent for me. And Ray, my our son was named Ray. He said for us. And we came to California,
you know. And then after we came to California and, you know, and we joined him, my brother Doug is the one that, you know, was instrumental in getting him from the farm, you know, maybe from the South, and brought him to California. And, he got a job as a dishwasher, as I said. He saved enough money. And so he had me and Ray come. We came and and Major and his wife. We all came together. You referred to Ray as was. Is he
still with us? No. Oh, I'm sorry. No. Three years ago, he was in no, it's been about yeah, about three years ago, I had moved back to Louis I had moved to Louisiana after my after my mom died. And he got kind of sick and stuff. And so he came there to live with me there in Louisiana. And, I found him I found him in the garage. He was just sitting there asleep. That's hard, you know. That was a hard road hole. But, I'm so sorry. Yeah. He probably knew he was gonna
go. He was 70 years old. He was born in 1950. He was, like two years old when we left Mississippi and we came. And we, like I said, we got a house. We got a big house and then we got the rest of them out, you know, piece by piece. Not everybody came at the same time. My sister, Bonnie, she was married to a guy in, George. You know, I was next to George in birth and, George had gone into the service. Everybody that was left at the, at the farm was Willie, Lester, Joseph, Vera, and Lucinda.
It was five of them still with mom and daddy at the on the farm. They were kids. You know, they were really young when I left. George wanted to get them out get them away from Mississippi in the farm life. Because one of my brothers, Willie, he's like, was like my daddy, short-tempered. And so he got in trouble with the landowner. Mama realized that he was gonna get hurt, probably killed if they didn't get him out
of there. So she told daddy, you know, mister Chambers, we're gonna have to get these children away from here before something terrible happens. And, because the landowner, he, you know, he did brute force to Willie. He, you know, he threatened to hurt him. And Willie took the, apart from the plow. Other other words, I forget what it's called now.
I can't think of it. But anyway, he was gonna hit Willie and Willie got this thing from he took it from the it's the thing that connects the mule to the plow. It goes between the plow and the horse, the mule. We use mules. And that's what Willie got that and dared him to hit him. He dared, you know, the landowner to hit him. And of course, but you don't do that. You got it. He was out of his place. You know?
So mama, you know, mama told daddy, you know, you got to we don't have to get him out of here. And, so, we didn't have a telephone or anything. In fact, we didn't even have electricity when I left there. Single tree. That thing is called a single tree. I don't know why they call it a single tree, But because it's a little it's a thing about that long and it has A couple feet? Yeah. And it has some rings that you hook Oh, yes. The horse there and then those then you hook it to
the ply also. Yeah. Yeah. You probably do some damage with that. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yes. But but anyway, because it's part male and part wood, but that's what Willie got to. I mean, smart. Oh, yeah. So they made arrangements. My husband and Bonnie's husband drove down there, you know, to to pick him up from Mississippi. The, landowner's name was Doug Doug Collier. Douglas Collier,
but we call him mister Doug. Where he lived, had to pass by his house, you know, to get to our house, which was, where mama's because I was already in California. Had to pass their house to, you know, his house to get to mama's house. And, you know, that in the South like that, everybody knows what's going on. Anybody suspicious come in, you know, eyes are on them and stuff. When the car came in and mister Doug saw a California tag on it, you know. So he came down to the house just, you know,
and see what was going on. Anyway, he's see, he made the statement. He said, You didn't come to get my n word. You know, he he you didn't come, you know, and they told him, No. No. Well, they had planned to stay a few days and rest up and go back. But after he came down and was inquiring, you know, mama, she always had a lot of wisdom. And she said, You know what? Y'all will have to get out of here as fast as you can.
So she fried some chicken and made food, you know, and, so that, that very that very same night that they came in that day, they packed up the car and took out the, you know, the children. It was five of them. So the car was packed. She gave put quilts and stuff in the car and stuff, so they left out. And, so what they did Mr. Doug lived kind of like up on a hill. And so mama's house was like down, you
know. And so what they did, they put the small kids in, which was Vera and Lucinda, those are my other two sisters. And they pushed that car without starting the motor. And they pushed that car up that hill, past Mr. Doug's house, and they would did it very quietly. They'd wait I think it was around midnight, they knew he would be asleep. And then they started their car down the hill, and they jumped in. And they didn't start that motor until they got beyond, you know, and they got on the road.
And they were scared. They were so scared because they didn't know if they were going to be followed and what. But when he discovered that they were gone, you know, it was nothing he could do. Because daddy was old. They were doing new farm work. It It was just nothing that he could do. Later on, before they left out, you know, he told he told mama, he says, if you get them back, you know, tell them I got a tractor, you know, like a John Deere. They wouldn't have to do
it. We wouldn't have to farm by mule. Because, see, they were we were this is how we were raised. What a mom was saying was, in honest days, work for an honest days pay. In other words, don't, you know, work, you know, work. Don't just get out there, and they call it ratting on the job, you know, pretending you're working and you're not. So we were raised to give a good day's work for our pay. And he knew they were good. They were
really good at farming. And, so, but mama, you know, he took, he, this is what he said to mama, you know, you know, tell them I could tell, you know, if they'll come back, I got a, I got a tractor. So she just told him, oh, mister Doug, she said, you know, I'm sorry, but if you you have to drive the tractor yourself because they're not coming back. That's how they got up. They got away. Do you know anything about their journey across
the country? Because I imagine that could have moments of being tenuous in those in that era. They made it. They still they just still stayed in their place. They when they stopped for gas, you know, they they got their gas and they, you know because I don't know what their trip was like because, you know, I I you know, just hearing what they said that Yeah. But, they got away safe. So now you're all in California for the most part, except for your parents.
And is the music becoming more important? Is are y'all performing out more? Or how's that going? When my brothers were in Mississippi, they had what they call a quartet. They used to sing at churches and stuff. So after they got out here, they couldn't go they really couldn't go to school because, they were so far behind not having gone to school enough in Mississippi. And, you know, and their knowledge and comprehension was so poor until they and at their age, they got teased.
And so they all dropped out of school. And after they formed the, you know, the group, what they call themselves, they were looking for a name after they got here, you know, to call themselves. And they couldn't find a name. So they said, Well, we were Chambers, so we'll just be the Chambers Brothers. That's how it got started, with them being, you know, the group as the Chambers Brothers.
And then later on, because we all did sing and we were a large family, and I was impressed to start a family Chambers Family. We call ourselves the Chambers Family Singers. And so we got organized and, and we sang a lot of different places because our group included the brothers, you know. By this time, well, they were, you know, already had made a good name for themselves. And so, you know, I I feel like a kind of ride on their coattails, you know, would be great, which it was. And,
I even wrote a play. It was called And Then One Day We Stepped Out. It that it was the story of, you know, how they got out by pushing the car and stuff. I wrote it and produced it. We played it at, Will She Bell Theater, which it turned out really nice. You know? In fact, I I brought a copy of it out. I said I was gonna give it to you. I had it taped and everything. Oh, look at that. I wanna read something to you. This is something I like to write, and I do poems.
And so this came to me and I you know, to write it, and I wrote it. I call it Reflection. I said, George and Victoria Chambers. When daddy met mama, he already had three children by two previous wives. Three days after they met, they were married. Mama became wife number three. They were married August tenth. Mama was born 1910. From 1927 to 1948, she gave birth to 10 children. The uniqueness of birth, Major Douglas and George, three boys, two girls, Jewel and Bonnie.
Three years between third boy, which was George, and first girl, which was me. Three more boys and two girls, Vera and Lucinda, were born. Four years between Willie, the last two girls born, the twenty fourth and the twenty sixth. Daddy passed 02/26/1978. '1 day after mama's birthday, mama passed February 24, '1 day before her birthday. Three days. Daddy was buried March. Mama, March. '3 days. Daddy was buried six days after his death. Mama was buried six days after her death. Daddy passed 1978,
'30 years. Mama passed 2,008. They both passed on a Sunday evening. Daddy was 30 years older than mama. According to their death certificates, daddy passed at 02:41, PM, mama at 05:35PM. If she had not passed and waited, if she lived or waited six minutes longer, it would have been exactly three hours between their deaths. Thirty years later, the fee for daddy's death certificate was $3 They both died at age 97.
Had mama lived to be 100, which is what she wanted to do, this uniqueness would have not occurred. I feel that mama was so tuned into God and daddy. It had to be this way. Only God could do this. And this gives me peace and closure. You know So today today is the day that she passed away. Today is the twenty fifth. The twenty fourth. Sure is. Yeah. That's interesting that you're talking about the history and it sure is. What was it like raising your children here?
You have just the one son who passed. Did you have other children here? Yes. I have, I had three sons and a daughter. I had four children. Yeah. Uh-huh. So I lost my Jerry was my youngest son and he was interesting, to say the least. He got into everything that he could. But, you know, he, well, the circumstances about his birth, I'm a, I was telling you, you know, about my husband coming and, ahead of me and got a job as a dishwasher.
At this job, he it was at a rest at a restaurant in Leimert Park. There was a guy working there with him. He became a friend of the family. And me being so naive and, you know, like I said, I I was a virgin when I got married. After, you know, coming to our house and stuff, well, I I didn't know it then, but he was grooming me. I don't I didn't know all of this until, you know, I've gotten older and I'm familiar with terms and things.
He had a niece named Virgimay, and he hooked Virgil May up with my husband, who was named Arthur Lee. Well, Arthur Lee was just about as naive as I, you know, was. And he had, you know, got He established this relationship with, between my husband and his niece. But all, all the time he, you know, he had his eye on me. So he's grooming me. He became very, very, you know, close to us in our family and everything. My husband, Arthur Lee, he was almost like my dad, a very poor provider.
I hated that. And so as time went on, you know, well, my dad got real sick one time and we all had to go home, you know, because they thought he was gonna die. And we all, all of us went back to Mississippi, you know, hopefully he wouldn't die, which he didn't at that time. This guy was named Booker, Booker Langford. And he was really good to me. He said that, you know, he gave me a big donation and he said they took it up on the job. I'm pretty sure they didn't. But he did so many good things.
And by this time, you know, and I became aware of the relationship between my husband and his niece. So when he made his move, he done groomed me, you know. And that's how Jerry came about. My brothers, you know, they knew about it and everything and and they loved my husband. And they and so they kind of took it out on Jerry, you know. Like Jerry, you know, it was not Jerry's fault that, you know. Was it nonconsensual
sex? It was consensual sex. Okay. And, I felt that I owed it to him because he had been, you know, so good. Because there were times when, you know, I didn't have food and he provided food, all of this. It took him years, but he but he he was successful. He had his eye on the prize and he he won. My brothers, they took it out on you know, they didn't like the guy. They didn't like Booker.
So they took it out on Jerry. You know, they used to thump his head and all that kind of stuff, and they mistreated him. And so it made him, other words, I guess, just messed with his, he had an inferior complex. And so he used to just get into trouble, trouble, trouble. And he gave me a lot of trouble. And then he, you know, as he, you know, grew up and, and I explained to him what happened because he, you know, he was upset with his dad because, he thought it, you know, it was forced
and everything. But I explained everything to him. And he, you know, once he became aware of what how the relationship went and everything, And then as he went to school and stuff, and he learned music, after he was able to get rid of the drug problem, he's a mama's boy. It's hard for him to forgive himself for what he put me through. And I tell him all the time, you know, don't, you know but it's just hard for him, you know, to forgive himself. So that's where
he he's at right now. He's he's a good singer. He plays really good bass guitar. Are all the descendants part of the choir or part of the singers, or is it just still the main part of the family that does it? We we sang for many years. Mama, you know, mama was with us. Daddy passed on. A couple of nieces, they kept it going. But then eventually, you know, it it just kind of folded up. And so the kids now, nobody nobody's interested. When we first started out, it was like 40 something.
We had 40 something people in the choir. The youngest was like three. And my mom, she was in her eighties. We sang at the Hollywood Bowl Under there was, it was called Five Musical Families, and our family was chosen. So there was like a Chinese, a Russian, a black. It was five. It was, I forgot, maybe Indian. But it was five musical families and that's how we sang, you know, got an opportunity to perform there at the Hollywood Bowl. We made pictures and stuff.
It's been really interesting. And I used to sew and I made outfits for everybody. I made shirts for the men and dresses for the women. And our first appearance, we stepped out and it looked so pretty because everybody had on the same identical thing. The men had on black suits with blue shirts and we had on the blue dresses. We did a big event at, Trade Tech. You know, are you familiar with Trade Tech? It's a college. Anyway, we did a big event there, and I made lavender dresses for everybody.
And, the men had on burgundy. Not lavender, burgundy. And the men had on burgundy black suits and burgundy shirts and just, you know, we went in style, you know. I learned to sew when I was real little to also, because my mama sewed. She used to make quilts by hand, you know, when we were kids and stuff, coming up. And if somebody complained about being cold, sleeping cold, my mom would, she never threw away anything. She made our dresses from flower sacks.
You know, used to be able to buy flower in a 25 pound bag. And so daddy, you know, when he would go shopping and whatever pattern he got, she would, you know, next time it was time to buy flour, she would have him to pick up that same another sack with that same so she could make mine and Bonnie's dresses. Mhmm. And we could we could describe to her what how, you know, a dress that we wanted made, and she could make it. And, so that passed on to me. But I couldn't I I I I sew by pattern.
But, That's an interesting part of history is that the flower companies made their sacks with designs and things because they knew that people were making clothing from them. Yes. Thank God, you know, because we they weren't able to buy yardage, you know. I've seen some of the clothing from that time, on display. It's really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I lived through those times. Yeah. Looking back on your life, what do you think is one of the most profound moments for you?
Really, really, really profound is once my brothers became famous, and they would be on the road and and get when they would come home, invite people and fix big meals and just feed people. Now, that's something my grandmother did. As mean as she was, once a year for her husband, for my grandfather, she would do this, second Sunday in August thing where people would just come and bring food and just feed people. And that's to me, that stands out.
We still do it. Bob's been invited to one of our gatherings. You know, we just like to do that. That's It's a lasting impression in our lives where we just like to have people come together. No fighting, no cursing, no fussing, no violence. Just come together and just enjoy. No plan for unless we plan to have some entertainment or whatever. But just come together, you know, and we would just pick anything to create that, you know, to create that event. Yeah.
Yeah. So we did it was for my ninetieth for my ninetieth birthday, We here, we did a big thing in the backyard back there. And, a lot of people a lot of people came. We sang, you know, just because always when we get together, we always sang. That that's profiled too. Anytime we would get together, we would always sing. It's really, really funny. Because, my mom, you know, and we we okay. This is how it would start. We start off singing gospel.
And then, you know, and then the music would, you know, then we'd go into rock and roll or whatever and do that. And we'd dance. And my mom wouldn't even get up on the floor and, you know, in her little way of dancing, she would do her little step and stuff, but we would always end up just doing the gospel. Those are the two things that stands out in my life that
we, you know, we still do. Some of your memories around the civil rights movement and doctor King and Malcolm X. I am not politically motivated. I just I've never gotten involved with politics. How come? I think it's perhaps because not being educated enough to realize, you know, what's going on. Mhmm. I just never I just I never followed it, you know. What about the wars, Vietnam and Korea? I I hate it. Yeah. I hate it, you
know, because Gerald went into service. He's I think he served, like, eighteen months. In Korea? Yes. Yeah. Mhmm. I I don't talk politics. I'm just not politically inclined. Never have been. And at my age, I never will be. You know? Do you vote? No. I used to because mama I mean, if probably if mama was still living, I would vote because she was, you know, my mom really, really she loved voting. Why why do you think you don't do it anymore? Because I think it's I don't know.
The politicians are I don't know. I just don't I think it's it's rigged. That's how I feel about it. I haven't I haven't voted. In fact, here, I'm not even registered now. I didn't vote in Louisiana. I lived there from 02/2009 to 02/22. I mean, 2022, I came back here. I'm not embarrassed to say it because I just, you know, I don't talk about it. Yeah. What are your plans for the next ten years? Just in life?
Well, I'll I'll tell you like I told my, cardiologist when I left Louisiana and my health got, you know, bad and I said, I'm going to California to live, and not die. I'm gonna I'm gonna live until I die. So for the next ten years, I'm just gonna try to, well, I want to be 105. My mom wanted to be 100, and I'm going for 105. So I, you know, that's a little bit more than ten years. But, well, I'm 91 now, so I'm on my way to the hundred. So I'm just trying to make it day by day. I still drive.
My hobby, is word game. I like I play words with friends and I win almost all of my games. I used to play Scrabble, and this is so close to Scrabble. So So it keeps my mind, you know. And when I'm driving, will I know I know the points, you know, like what each, alphabet, I know the points. You know, like m is four points and j is 10 points and x is eight points. And, you know, so when I drive, I play this game with license plates. I, I'm always trying to get 40 points.
So what I do, I really I add up the points, you know. I add the numbers and I know what the what the alphabets. I know what I know the points. So I I that's what I do. So it keeps me, you know, it keeps my mind, you know. It seems like a good good way to keep the mind active. Yeah. For sure. If I'm driving daily, that's what I do. Yeah. And every once in a while, I find cars that had that their their the alphabets and the numbers go past 40, sometimes 42, 40 three, you know.
But the most popular number is 39. For the next ten years, I'm just gonna take it day by day. I mean, I think that's a good attitude. Thank you so much for your time and for your storytelling. Yep. Thank you for listening. Absolutely. It's a I could go on and on and on and on and on because when I came you know, when I when I left Louisiana, you know, I I left with the vision to take care of my brother, Joe. He passed August, this past August. He had a problem with
drugs and stuff. You know, his health got really bad. I hung in there with him, was able to, you know, for him to get a good burial. I got all that taken care of for him. With him gone, my sister, this bunny, you know, she's two years younger than I am, and her health is bad. So right now, I'm, you know, I'm kind of I always have a mission. And we're getting ready to move from here.
So when after we, you know, get moved from here and I get settled in, I'll probably be spending a lot of nights with her. She's alone. Her husband had to be, put into a a facility because he has Alzheimer's. So she's alone. She, you know, she'll make 89 the March 3. You know, so I keep myself busy. Yeah. Get busy living or get busy dying. Yeah. Right? And I I prefer living. Yeah. There's a scripture in the Bible, Proverbs, I think it's 1821 says, Death and life is in the power of the tongue.
So I speak life to my life, not death. And so when I you know, there are times when I don't know if I'll wake up the next morning. So I I said, Beau, I will live and not die to declare the works of the Lord. I wake up the next Lord. So Seems like a good, partnership. Yeah. It is. It is. So Thank you, Jewel. Thank you for listening, everybody. Bye. Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human podcast on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks. Bye.