Getting to Know Jennifer Brown

Written by: Emily

   On July 20th, 1937, Evelyn Duff and William Thompson gave birth to a baby girl they named Pearl Naomi Thompson. She was born in Port Deposit, Maryland. Jennifer Brown is my grandmother, who I know as Mommom. I will always love and remember her as an amazing grandmother.
      When Jennifer was a child, she had many chores and responsibilities. For example, she had to make her bed, clean her room, and iron. Since she was the youngest, she also had to clean the bathrooms once a week. She had two older siblings, one brother and one sister. Her brother’s name was Wayne and her sister’s name was Shirley.
     Although she had many things to do at home, my mommom enjoyed playing with her friends too. She and her friends played games such as jacks, dolls, pickup sticks, and jump rope. Pearl also loved to roller skate. Mommom remembers living through WWII and later in her life the Korean War. Also, because she lived in the city, she played ball games a lot. Being a kid then was a lot different from how it is today. “Kids today have too many toys and too little respect,” says my grandmother.

     Playing games may have been easy, but school was more difficult for my grandmother. She was very shy when she was in elementary school, so she found it difficult. She went to Edgewood Elementary. My mommom admired her third grade teacher, Mrs. Bane, when she was a child.
     Her years as a teenager at Bel Air High were a little easier for my grandmother. Her most embarrassing moment as a teenager was when she tripped on the way out of gym and got knocked out. Luckily, she was not seriously hurt and received only a small cut. She got her first car when she was eighteen, and remembers that it was a green Pontiac that smelled like cigars on the inside! Although she never went to college, she wishes that she had. “If I could change one thing about my life, it would definitely be to go to college.” she says.
     When she got out of high school, Mommom made the decision to get a job. In 1955, she got a job at Commercial Bank in Bel Air. One of her friends worked there too. Her fiancé knew a man named Richard Brown, so he set Pearl up for a date with him. Pearl and Richard got married on October 26, 1968 and moved to a house in Norrisville where they had four children. Their names were Tracy, Terri, Kelly, and Richard, who is my dad. Richard Brown is now my grandfather. Jennifer then legally changed her name to Jennifer Brown.
     Today Jennifer enjoys many hobbies. She loves to paint, crochet, quilt, and cook. Some of her favorite recipes are biscuits, sausage gravy, and chicken potpie. “She made the best spaghetti anywhere,” says my dad. “ And she loved to invent recipes herself.” She always enjoyed reading as a child, and she still does today. Mommom always makes delicious dinners for holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. She also enjoys gardening and planting flowers.

I have many wonderful memories of my mommom. One memory that I will always have is going to her house after school. When my parents work, which is usually three days a week, I go to her house until they come home. I do a lot of fun things when I visit my grandmother. For example, sometimes she shows me things that she’s painted, and sometimes she teaches me how to do things. Once she even taught me to crochet when I visited! I also used to go to her house in the morning when both my parents worked. Although I didn’t stay there very long, it was a lot of fun to spend time with her. I don’t think that I could be the person I am without just a little help from Mommom. I will always remember my mommom as the best grandmother that I could ever have.

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