Blue Popsicles

by Neanni Y. Ife

Blue Popsicles chronicles the 11 years NeAnni Ife spent in the Ohio Soldiers' & Sailors' Orphans' Home in Xenia, Ohio, an institution admired for its palatial buildings, high academic standards and the opportunities all that represented, yet abhorred for its disciplinary treatment of America's most vulnerable orphans. Recounted from a child's perspective, Blue Popsicles describes in raw emotion intimate parts of her life as a black child whose world turns upside down with the sudden death of her mother, which resulted in her and seven of her nine siblings moving into the orphanage. Her book takes the reader from her parents' five-room house at 104 Paisley Street in Dayton, Ohio to the orphanage, and details the unfathomable depths to which children must venture to find peace and security amid chaos and inhumanity. Through laughter and tears, readers stated they have found ways to reach beyond retribution for injustice, abuse, suffering and pain to reconciliation and forgiveness.

252 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Asha Greye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of a Black child ,raised in one of the United States' once numerous orphanages right along side of White children, during the time of legalized segregation and the civil rights movement, was extremely intriguing. That being said I could not understand the author's anger, biased, and resentment toward the Christian people, who put race aside and took in a hoard of motherless negro children, making sure they didn't do without since their father couldn't be bothered with all of the children he helped his wife to create to her great detriment. The father she idolized did not care enough to insure she had a roof over her head, three meals a day,clean clothes on her back, a decent pair of shoes on her feet, and a stable place to lay her head every night. He was more than happy to allow White strangers to assume his responsibilities so he could start a new life with wife number 3. What a loving father!

While yes,some of the caregivers at the Home were indeed racist, most of them were decent people, who did their best and really seemed to be devoted to bringing their charges up to be Godfearing, disciplined, well educated, and productive citizens. Chapter after chapter the author went on and on, playing the victim with a huge chip on her shoulder and a defiant attitude that was a large cause of most of her troubles. While the author bemoans abuse and harsh punishments I tended to find the claims quite exaggerated or blown out of proportion. This is the 1950s and 1960s we are talking about here and we all know that corporal punishment was very much in vogue in general back then, so it would be considered normal and even necessary to paddle or slap the face of a defiant and unruly child who failed to tow the line or talked back to adults. Additionally, one should recall that OSSO took the children of military veterans and was therefore a military orphanage that one would expect to be very rigid and strict explaining the punishments of excessive physical activity to the point of exhaustion. There is only one thing that troubled me and that was the particular staff member who lost his mind and nearly beat the teenaged author to death. I read a separate article about the incident in which it was referred to as a "discipline session" that was apparently determined to be justified, but it was not at all. It was the unjustified assault of a minor under custody and anyone did that nowadays, we'd be locked up forever for attempted murder and rightfully so. How the author ever managed to forgive that man is beyond me.

My overall appraisal of the book is that it is a worthwhile read and an important part of history, since so few Americans know that at one time even our supposedly best country on Earth had orphanages and social orphans, let alone find the rare gem of the narrative of such a childhood by a black woman. As I said at the beginning it is always fascinating to read a black girl's story since so few exist.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book of fiction. It reminds me very much of a book I read a few years ago, entitled "Jesus Land." "Blue Popsicles" tells the story of a young girl named Nancy who lives on the West side of Dayton in the mid-1950's. Her mother dies while in child birth with her 9th child when Nancy is only 6 years old. Her father decides he cannot possibly care for all his children as a single parent and sends them to a children's orphanage in Xenia. Nancy's tale of growing up in this particular institution is most of the time heart wrenching and sometimes heart-warming. Her internal drive, intelligence and perserverance in the face of injustice really captures the reader. Thanks Laura for another good read.

[Mollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because my biological grandmother, along with her siblings, was placed in The Ohio Sailors' and Soldiers' Orphanage Home back in 1902--not because they were orphaned but because her parents were indigent. I think being placed there at the tender age of six had a tremendous negative impact on my grandmother. But like Ms. Ife she was a survivor. I appreciated Ms. Ife's honest telling as it opened a window to the daily stuggles that alot of these children had to endure without a mother and a father.