Black History Month is more than observing important historical dates and noting prominent people of color. Every African-American family has its own "black history." Today, we ask the matriarch of one large local family to Remember When and talk abOut what has held her clan together for four generations and what values have shaped their lives. By LISA ANN MYERS Courier-Post Staff
Tightly holding her pinochle cards, 9O-year-old Julia Carpenter cocks her head to the side and casually peeks over at her son's hand. Arranging her cards, she nods her head and winks at her 56-year-old son, Marvin Carpenter. "How's it looking over there, mother?" Marvin asks, coolly dealing more cards onto the kitchen table. "Hmm ...I guess they're alright," Julia shrugs.
"We play every day," Marvin explains with a sigh. "And mother usually wins." For the Carpenters, pinochle is serious business. Marvin usually keeps written records of their games inside a notepad. But as for Julia, she keeps mental notes of more important matters.
Julia is the Carpenter family historian. The 9O-year-old Willingboro NJ resident is the oldest living relative of the Carpenter clan; a large, black family whose roots flow through Camden NJ, Pennsauuken NJ, Willingboro NJ and various states around the counry. Some of the family names connected to the Carpenters are Ingram, King, Hinson, Johnson, Hicks, Moore, Beryls and Thompson. Julia, who lives with Marvin, admits that she's forgotten some of her family's history. However the spry senior citizen clearly the love between relatives, their family values and their devotion to the church.  Gingerly placing her cards face down on the table,  Julia
gracefully strides into the living room for a chat about the family. "Oh my," Julia says, lowering herself onto the couch. "The Carpenter family is a big family, we've got folks all over,
New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Detroit, Michigan, Conneticut, CalIfornla, Virgirna, Florida ...oh, it must be a few thousand of us -I can't even count them," she chuckles. Julia traces the family line back to Virginia, where her father, James Edward Carpenter, was a shucker, a man who opens shellfish on a sea, food ship. He later went to Tarrytown, N.Y., to repair boilers for a shoe manufacturing company. In the late 1800s, the Carpenter family set down roots in East Camden when her father met and married her mother, Ida Jane Ingram. Ida Jane was the daughter of William Henry Ingram, a black soldier in the Civil War. Together, her parents had 22 children -three sets of twins, two sets of triplets and 10 single births. Julia was the fourth from the youngest child. Many of the children were grown and out of the house during Julia's childhood. But for the most part, the Carpenter's East Camden home was loaded with children.
"We had a houseful, that's for sure," she laughs. "But there was a lot of love. It looked like the other children in the neighborhood envied us. We were so close-knit and there was so many
of us. I think love kept us together. yes, we' all loved each other." Standing at only 5 feet 3 inches and weighing a little under 90 pounds, Julia says she's still the boss in the family.
"I'm the oldest now -I guess that makes me the boss," she chuckles. "When I was a child, I was younger and smaller than everybody else, but I was the still the boss. Everybody had to do
what 1 said. I made sure my brothers and sisters did their chores, went to prayer meeting and did what Mother and Daddy said." Stroking her silver gray hair, Julia cracks a smile when she thinks of growing up in Camden. "Oh, Camden was nothing like it is today. Back then, Camden was all country. My brothers and sisters and I would go out into the fields to pick berries. We'd have picnics, play games together, Camden was beautiful." The city was also a land of opportunity for the Carpenter clan. At a time when Camden did not have municipal trash trucks,
Julia's father was the first black man to provide the city of Camden with a fleet of nearly 20
trash trucks, sanitation workers and trash removal.  Her mother was a seamstress and an elementary school teacher at Catto School in East Camden. Growing up, education and
religion were paramount. Each day Julia and her siblings prayed  with their parents before a full day at school. Julia pursued her education in the Camden public school system. But just before graduation day at Camden High School, something went wrong. "1 was flat on my back in Cooper Hospital. I was suffering with something -I don't know what it was. But the good thing
was, I did get an education." Several years after high school, Julia started her own family. In 1932, Julia married James Edward Hudson. Being fond of her maiden name, Julia never used
her married name, even after the births of her six children.
"When it came time to raise my children, 1 raised them the same way I was raised -with love and religious values. I loved my children. I played outside with them, prayed with them,
checked their homework. .." she says. "But," she adds sternly, "1 raised them with a few rules. Number one was love -you have to give children love. The second thing was restriction -children need some restriction and discipline. Third -a system. You have to have a system, a belief system to keep the family together. Ours was religion. I've passed that system down to my children and I believe their children are using it." Marvin, the third of Julia's six children, remembers his family's belief system very well. "Prayer and religion were always very big in our family. We went to church every Sunday, you never missed. As children, we always knew God was just a prayer away. "Religion has been the backbone of this family," he contiuues. "The religious values have stuck through generations. We've had several ministers in the family and most all of our folks go to church. It's there and it's going to stay there. For this family, it just makes sense. You're taught This is where your help comes from. We all stick to that belief system," Marvin says. Keeping in touch with each other is another way the Car-
penter family stays strong. Marvin talks with his siblings a few times a day. Other family members contact "Aunt Julia" for a friendly chat or a family history lesson. And then there's the annual family reunion. Relatives from across the United States gather at Cooper River Park to chat about old times and to meet new family members. This year's reunion is planned for July.
Although Marvin feels blessed to have such a large and closeknit family, he's troubled by the dysfunction that characterizes other families today. "The family unit, especially the black family unit, is breaking down. There's no respect, no loyalty, no sense of belonging for chiIdren today. Simple things can hold your family together. For instance, growing up we all sat
down to the dinner table together. That was mandatory. At the table, the family could talk together and enjoy each other. Talking and being together keeps a family strong. People don't do those things anymore," Marvin says, shaking his head. "But I think there will be a resurgence in the black family. I think families will come to realize that society's values don't work. I think people will learn to rely on what lasts: family structure and values."
Marvin is a retired psychiatric evaluator for the public defenders office in Philadelphia. A member of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Burlinton, he sings in the church's 160-member male chorus, the largest male chorus in the state.  His five siblings throughout the country.
Sitting with her hands folded, Julia wraps up her family history with a smile. The proud grandmother of 31 and great-grandmother of 55 delights in knowing that the Carpenter roots are
deepening each day.
But for now, Julia is headed for the kitchen. It's time for another game of pinochle.