Rondo Reflections: The Story of Bertha Givins
Irna Landrum | Blog | Monday July 12 2010Summit-U elder and volunteer, Bertha Givins, reflects on her life as a Rondo community member and shares her personal history with us.
Story by K. M. Wilson
After serving with the 312th labor battalion in France, Sergeant First Class Byrd Douglas was discharged from the army on July 24, 1919 and returned to the sleepy little farming village of Lexington, Missouri to reunite with his wife Pearl (nee Mady) and their first born child Frederick (Otis).
January 10, 1920, found the little family living in the thriving city of St. Paul, Minnesota at 479 Thomas Avenue. Perhaps Byrd was influenced by the popular song of that era- “How ya gonna keep em down on the farm after they’ve seen Par-ee?”
1In 1927, The St. Paul Appeal Editor Wilkins proudly observed that, “the colored people of St. Paul live in one of the city’s best locations. It is near the downtown shopping area, it is convenient to both cities, it is neither on top of a hill nor in a valley, it has streets well lined with beautiful trees, it is not near a railroad yard, nor any unpleasant manufacturing plants, it has excellent transportation, which makes it ideal for business…….” Then he described the now vanished Rondo Street. It is, he wrote, “a riot of warm colors, feelings and sounds with sights that would make one from the rural portions of the south feel at home and a person from Harlem or State Street at ease. Music is in abundance from Victrolas, saxophones, player pianos and hurry-up orchestras which pour out their complaints to the passing scene. It seethes with the pulsing beauty of the lives of the people who feel intensely every emotion which stirs their being.”
By 1937, the Douglas family consisted of 10 children, including # 8, Bertha Douglas Givins. The family was residing at 459 Rondo, where Bertha recalls her early years in lower Rondo (east of Dale). Rondo was a close knit neighborhood where everyone knew each other. Everyone walked to get where they were going in the community, contributing to the engagement and fraternization of the citizens as they went about their daily business. It was a self contained community with grocery stores, an ice cream parlor, gas/service stations, a pharmacy and beauty and barber shops, drycleaners, doctors, dentists and 2-3 funeral parlors, as well as restaurants, taverns, and social clubs.
Children were well-behaved and parents watched out for their own and everyone else’s children. If one was misbehaving they were scolded by a nearby adult and the misbehavior was communicated to the parents. Children’s curfews were in effect in the evening.
A large park called “The Hollow” served as a skating rink in the winter and a baseball park in the summer. It was located at the northeast corner of Kent Street and St. Anthony Avenue. Another playground was located between Western, Virginia, Rondo and St. Anthony.
McKinley Elementary school was within a block of the Douglas residence, as was the grocery store where they shopped. McKinley School drew students from lower Rondo westerly to Mackubin Avenue and nearby Frogtown. As a child, Bertha was not allowed to venture more than a couple of blocks away from her home. However, since the grocery store was nearby, she would occasionally be sent there by her mother to pick up supplies. Although they had a large family, Mrs. Douglas tried to give each of her children special time with her. Bertha recalls that she and her next oldest sister, Pauline, enjoyed occasional Saturday movies with their mother Pearl, at the Beaux Arts Theater on nearby Selby Avenue. Their father, Bryd, liked to sing and enjoyed teaching the children popular songs, including those of the World War One.
At the age of 14 Bertha got her first job as a baby sitter for the three children of Reverend and Mrs. Louis Irving. She earned $25 a month. Bertha would often pick the children up at the Ober Center, and take them to the ice cream parlor on Rondo Avenue. Mrs. Irving was a director at the Ober Center.
The Ober Center played a large part in the lives of the youngsters growing up in the Rondo neighborhood. Initially, it began as a boys club and eventually became coed. There was a game room for activities such as ping pong, access to art projects and a library. Parents had access to daycare. Bertha credits her attendance there as a very good influence on her during her teenage years.
Summer activities included day trips to Hidden Falls for powwows; and for $1.00 one could spend a week at summer camp at Snail Lake. The cost remains the same through the present day.
All of Bertha’s 4 children and 8 grandchildren have been a part of activities at the Ober Center.
During the Rondo Days Celebration of 2007, there were 500 attendees at the Ober Center reunion. The committee is planning another reunion during the Days of Rondo Celebration of 2010.
During the time that Bertha was growing up, there were as many as 12 functioning churches in the Rondo Community. Pilgrim Baptist Church was established by former slave, Robert T. Hickman in 1866 and moved to its present location on 732 W. Central Ave in 1928. St. Peter Claver which was formerly located at Aurora and Farrington, sponsored teen dances.
By 1945 the family was residing at 342 Rondo, and Bertha entered Mechanic Arts High School, which involved a stroll out of the neighborhood each day to that site; just northeast of the state capital. It was there that she discovered her passion for poetry. While her contemporaries grumbled about the assignments to study the poems of Edgar Allen Poe and the story of Silas Marner; Bertha was secretly captivated and began writing her own collection of poetry and short stories.
The hangout spot for teens at the time was the White Castle on University. It was located on the NE corner of University and Lexington Avenues, where the Kentucky Fried Chicken stands in present time. Bertha states she felt it was a hangout spot for all Minnesotans. Everybody met up there.
The decade between 1950 through 1960 brought many changes into Bertha’s life. Her father, Byrd, passed away just as she was beginning her senior year of high school. Bertha married Robert Givins in 1951 and gave birth to her first child in 1952. By 1960 the family consisted of 2 boys and 2 girls. They were now at home at 479 Central Avenue, where Bertha’s mother Pearl joined them.
After the birth of her children, Bertha set out to discover what it was that she wanted to do as a career. She tried nursing home work, considered and immediately rejected factory work and while she was working at The Emporium in downtown St. Paul, she got a letter inviting her to participate in testing for career training opportunities.
It had been a standing joke between Bertha and her sister that Bertha should become a lab technician because all the technicians her sister had met were tall and skinny, so Bertha would fit right in. That’s how the decision was made and Bertha enrolled at the Minnesota Medical Institute. She received her diploma on December 17, 1966. Bertha served her internship at Bethesda Hospital on Capital Boulevard, St Paul, and then began working in their pathology lab. The next year she began employment in the microbiology lab at Ecolab where she remained until she retired after 29 years.
However, Bertha did not really retire. Instead she opened the next chapter of her life, which was her career in community service.
In 1996, while attending a workshop at Frogtown Center, Bertha met up with an old neighbor, Melvin Giles. Melvin was the director at Frogtown Center, which was a division of Catholic Charities. He asked Bertha to become a volunteer at the center.
She started out by answering the phone, and sorting clothes during phone downtime. (The Center also distributed food and clothing). The plan was that she would be a receptionist; but Bertha wanted to be more personally involved with helping those that were in need of their services.
She became the coordinator of furniture distribution, which involved scheduling pickups and drop-offs of donated furniture. The furniture warehouse was in downtown St. Paul. Clients would request furniture, if they were moving into a place of their own, cases of fire, etc. She would locate suitable items for them and schedule placement. Eventually, her domain took up the back room of the Center. Bertha contacted the Bridging group in Minneapolis and volunteered to coordinate the furniture needs of their clients with the stock they were building up at the St Paul warehouse. She eventually went on to offer her services to anyone in need, regardless of where they lived.
Bertha also served as an advocate for seriously committed young people to help them get jobs. She was the “catchall” for whatever came up.
One of the memorable clients Bertha came in contact with in St Paul was that of a recent Somali immigrant woman, who appeared at the Center in the middle of summer wearing insulated rubber overshoes with fur around the top. She was an educated woman, spoke English poorly, and was in need of a job. She resided at 1274 St Anthony Avenue with her 2 daughters. Even though there were no openings at the time, Bertha convinced management to hire this woman at the Center on a part-time basis. At the end of the day she got on the bus with her, detouring at Payless Shoes, where Bertha bought the young lady a pair of shoes. This woman went on to become a full time teacher at Arlington Sr. High School and purchased a home.
In 2001, Bertha received the Virginia McKnight Binger Award for Community Service.
After the Frogtown Center closed in 2004, Bertha was invited to become involved with The Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis sponsored by the Mpls Social Service Department which involved getting women and some men off of welfare and into jobs. Each Client was paired with a mentor of their own ethnicity and had time with them on a one to one basis. The main mission was to find out why clients were missing their schedules at job sites and help them solve or remediate the problems.
Bertha participates with Melvin Giles in the peace pole movement. She recites her poems at the planting ceremony. Peace Poles are handcrafted monuments erected the world over as an international symbol of peace. They are four-sided and approximately eight feet tall. When “planted” in concrete in front of a school or library, they stand six feet tall. There are thousands of peace poles worldwide. They are made of fiberglass or metal with a hollow core.
Participants have the opportunity to write personal messages and thoughts of peace and harmony. These messages are encapsulated within the pole. On each side of the pole are four languages depicting the same message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth”. Their purpose is to spread that message and to act as a constant reminder for us to visualize and pray for world peace.
Peace begins in the hearts and minds of each individual.
In 2007, Bertha became involved with The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) program which involved training at Metropolitan State University, St Paul. The eastern campus on Mounds Boulevard was the former site of St. John’s Lutheran Hospital. Bertha likes to say, “It was the first time I had been back there since I was born”.
She did her internship at her beloved Ober Center where she was responsible for developing the new library. She tutored ESL reading classes and read stories to the children. She agreed to stay on for a year to continue with the work she had started during her internship.
Bertha is a popular speaker relating to all things Rondo. She is involved with the Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation and Light Rail Committee. She remains a community activist.
She recently attended her neighborhood political caucus and is scheduled to attend the planning meeting for the community garden to be planted in her neighborhood.
Bertha has a third career as a poet. She has been published in three anthologies, including, Today’s Greatest Poems, published by John Campbell and Edie Lou Cole.
In 1987, Bertha was invited to an award ceremony to receive a Golden Poet’s award. In 1988 she attended an award ceremony in Las Vegas to receive her second Golden Poet’s Award. She has received a Platinum Poet’s award as well.
In addition to the vast collection of her poetry, she has begun writing short stories about a naughty first grader named Antonio Bondalas Rodriguez who gets himself into many adventures. She plans to publish an anthology of her short stories and poems.
1 The Appeal From the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society
Rondo Reflections: The Story of Bertha Givins…
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