a princess and a janitor

 I'm certain I'm not alone in this. I have a story or two, 100% the truth, yet people often don't believe it. Oh, some folks are polite, nodding their heads and smiling while others just laugh. One of those stories concerns a lady I can just remember. She was a friend of my great grandfather and I knew her only as Miss Pokey. Her full name was Princess Pocahontas Pharoah. She was the last member of the Montauk Indian tribe to be born at Indian Field in Montauk. She seldom spoke of any of that though as it was her life. You know how you are, to her, it was pretty much ho hum. She didn't dress like I thought an Indian should dress, nor did she talk like the Indians on television. She was a jovial sort of lady and from what little I remember very nice. I do recall her telling me she was asked to march in the parade. She laughed about that and said, I'm too fat and too old to be walking in any parades in moccasins! 

 Now Miss Pokey worked at the telephone company. She was what we would call a janitor today. I'm not sure of her official title. All I remember is her stopping by my great grandfathers house on her way home from work. She would sit and chat with Gramp and tell us kids she needed to rest her feet. I have no idea what they talked about as kids weren't allowed in the conversation of adults. That my Great Grandfather had a cane he claimed was once the property of Stephen Talkhouse I knew. Stephen Talkhouse was famous He was a Pharoah too. I assume they were related in some fashion. There wasn't much interest in all of this when I was a kid. I expect a great deal of this history has been researched these days. There is a bar named the Stephen Talkhouse that by all accounts these days is a rather big deal. It wasn't when I lived there. But anyway, that cane was given to Tez, another Indian friend of my father. Dad figured that was the proper place for that artifact. Whether that cane was the property of Stephen Talkhouse is questionable. Gramp said it was, and Chief Red Thundercloud of the Catawba nation took his word for it. 

 Miss Pokey, princess and janitor passed away in 1963. She was interred at Cedar Lawn cemetery in East Hampton. The last I knew it was an unmarked grave. I wonder if that has been rectified, if not, it certainly should be. Yes I have people that just don't believe me when I tell them I was once held by a Princess. It's the absolute truth and so was my sister. Yes, we were friends with a princess. We were also friends with Chief Red Thundercloud, known to us as Tez. I remember him sleeping in a teepee too! I think he did that more for effect than anything else. After all, Tez made his living being an Indian. There is much that can be said about him, but I can say he was my friend.

 It can be frustrating when you tell people these stories and they doubt you. The thing about stories are, that's exactly what they are, stories. As I have said in the past, memories are always in the first person, everything else are stories. I remember Miss Pokey in the first person, to others she is just a character in a story. It happens to us all eventually, we become a memory, then we become a story. The goal is having someone tell the story. That's when you have been successful in life wouldn't you say? To be remembered. This morning I'm remembering Miss Pokey. A princess and a janitor.