In this wonder-filled memoir about her life and the life of her ancestors on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia, Cornelia Walker Bailey begins with the breaking of a brand new day and ends with a New Year's celebration. She is part of a small community of 74 African-Americans left on the island. Bailey's roots go back to Bilali, one of the first African slaves to settle here in the early 1800s. For almost two centuries Sapelo Island has been the home of Geechee and Gullah peoples who trace their ancestry back to Sierra Leone, Africa.
For a few years Bailey served as a State of George tour guide on the island; over 30,000 tourists visit the island each year. She is a good storyteller as evidenced by her commentary on God, Dr. Buzzard (voodoo), and the Bolito Man (a colorful way of talking about luck or playing the numbers). During her childhood people were always looking for signs: a shooting star was interpreted as the arrival of a new baby, and the screech of an owl was seen as a sign of death. Children had to always be on the lookout for "jack-o' lantern" (a mysterious ball of light) and "the hag that rides you" (a terrible being of the night). God was seen as residing in the West. The people on the island went to church not only to worship but to settle disputes. Bailey's father is taken for a ride by a white wheeler-dealer on the island and loses two acres of his land. No wonder whites are called "bucra men" — a term referring to someone who tries to mess in your business or control your life.
The author displays her descriptive virtuosity writing about the ceremony used to introduce a child to God's world and "shout," a celebration done in a circle to the beat of a stick, usually a broomstick. Bailey recalls her own baptism ritual in detail and then touches upon the shame she felt when her grandmother put a curse on her one day for being impolite. Perhaps she has lasted so long on Sapelo Island because as a child she drank a lot of tea called "Life Everlasting." Whatever the reason, she has written a snappy memoir filled with colorful characters, dreams, signs, magic, and ritual.