WAY BACK WHEN: Maury Tillman

Editor’s note: Way Back When is a feature that records and preserves the stories and memories of lifelong West Orange and Southwest Orange residents.

Maury Tillman recalls growing up in Isleworth as a young black boy and attending Windermere Elementary School when there was just one other black child — the janitor’s daughter. He comes from a family of citrus grove workers and remembers the sweet smell of orange blossoms, a childhood free of racism and the carefree days of his youth.

Tillman has shared memories of his younger years in an oral history project conducted by the town of Windermere, which celebrates its centennial this year.

LIFE IN ISLEWORTH

Tillman, now 58, was born at West Orange Memorial Hospital in 1966 and grew up in the community of Isleworth. His grandfather migrated to the area in 1932 as a teenager.

“Since that time, we’ve had three generations that were born and raised and died in Isleworth/Windermere,” he said. “I have lots of fond memories.

“As a kid, I remember running throughout the orange groves, the smell of the orange blossoms, because Isleworth was primarily orange groves, and our family lived in the midst of that, and the orange blossoms were always very present,” he said.

“All of my relatives worked in the orange groves, with the Chase family, in some capacity,” Tillman said. “My grandfather was a mechanic for all the trucks and different machinery for the orange groves. I had a great uncle who was a foreman who would drive the crewmen to the orange groves, a couple of my uncles and my father would drive the citrus to all the different locations. My grandmother was actually a maid to the Chase family that owned all the property in Isleworth and in the area, as far as the groves were concerned.”

Chase Groves Inc. owned 1,600 acres of groves along the shores of the Butler Chain of Lakes.

Tillman and his family lived somewhere in the middle of it all.

Tillman’s grandmother also worked as a maid for the Bradford family of Windermere.

“She was a maid till practically she couldn’t do it anymore,” he said.

Tillman said he has fond memories of being a kid in Isleworth and Windermere, “living on property that’s surrounded by beautiful lakes, white sand roads and orange groves all around you, smelling the orange blossoms, pulling bananas off the trees, having your family all around you.”

His grandmother was called Big Mama, even though she was a small woman, and she kept a supply of cookies for her grandchildren.

“She would always have (Charles Chips) cookies delivered to her house,” Tillman said. “Looking back, how many people knew that Charles chocolate chip cookies were being delivered to people?”

He said he grew up thinking he “had the world.”

The Chases provided housing for the people who lived and worked in Isleworth.

“We called them the quarters,” Tillman said. “It was livable; I didn’t feel poor as far as other populations of African Americans.”

His great-uncle ran a small country store that sold soft drinks, cookies, chips and other snacks mainly to the migrant workers before they went into the groves.

He remembers his great-uncle, a citrus foreman, taking several family members to the grove and put them up in a tree to pick and bag the fruit.

“It taught me how to have a strong work ethic, not be afraid of hard work and (have) a great appreciation for those that were doing it for a living,” Tillman said.

GROWING UP IN ISLEWORTH

The orange groves also provided many opportunities for fun.

“The groves were our playground, the lake was our recreational pool,” he said. “That was just where we had fun.”

They fished in the lakes, they attempted camping in the woods, they played hide-and-seek, they sneaked into the abandoned packinghouse and slid down the chutes.

As a student, Tillman went to Windermere Elementary, where his aunts and uncles also attended. He never did get up the courage to talk to the little black girl.

“I just happened to have a crush on her,” he said. “I just remember admiring her from afar.”

Tillman is grateful for his childhood.

“Just from a racial standpoint, being that we were a small community of blacks … amongst a community that was known for being affluent, I never felt any racism or any negative like, ‘You don’t belong here’ type feeling. It was unique because our family was nestled in Isleworth; we were kind of isolated from the general population of other African Americans who lived in Orlando.”

There is one story that sticks with him, even today. His schoolteacher had a big world map on the wall and told her students to ask their parents from where they came.

“I had no clue,” he said. “I didn’t go home and ask my parents. I just figured I would make something up. So, I go back to school the next day, the teacher’s going around the room. … ‘Tommy?’ ‘Oh, we’re from England,’ and she got to me, and before I could even make up where I was from, she said, ‘Oh, Maury, you’re from Africa.’

“I was taken aback,” he said. “I didn’t argue; I was just a little kid. But I was sad because the only images of Africa that I knew were either stuff I saw on TV like ‘Tarzan’ or National Geographic with people with bones in their mouths, and I’m like, ‘That’s not me.’ But as you grow up and learn true history, you learn you really are from there.

“It was an experience I will never ever forget because it made me understand the importance of know your history,” Tillman said. “I don’t necessarily look it as a negative thing; I look at it as an awareness thing and the importance of being able to see yourself through others wherever that may be. … That experience was humbling and eye opening.”

The Tillman family attended Isleworth Missionary Baptist Church until the property was sold and members had to find another church.

“If you didn’t go to the church, you wouldn’t have any idea we were there,” he said. “If people asked, ‘Where do you live?’ and you say Windermere, you get this ‘Ohhh,’ as if we were affluent. And that carries over to this day. If someone asks me where I grew up and I say Isleworth, they’re like ‘Oooh.’ I feel like I have to tell them it’s not what it is now.

“They automatically thought you had money,” he said. “You didn’t feel poor at all. I think it was traditional Southern living. I remember my grandmother gardening; they grew the vegetables. Things that I would not dare eat now just were common — raccoons, possum, obviously fish galore, rabbits, turtles. I remember my grandmother making turtle soup. We lived off the land, and it was all right there in Isleworth. It was just a unique experience for a kid.”

He recalled the beauty of living on Lake Bessie.

“Nowadays, that’s lakefront property, but then it was just a lake out back, and it was beautiful seeing the rain coming across the lake before it got to you,” Tillman said. “It was mesmerizing to actually see it come across the lake and then it hits you.”

He remembers when Walt Disney World was opening and the attraction had giant spotlights shining in the sky.

“I remember looking up into the sky … and I thought they were angels just floating up there,” he said.

IT WILL ALWAYS BE HOME

“Windermere, Isleworth, it will always be close to me; I’ll always feel close to there,” Tillman said. “I live in Winter Garden, and I pass through there all the time. Whoever I’m with … they get tired of me saying, ‘I went to school right over there. That was the Reddi Market over there. That was the post office.”

He’s glad to see the town of Windermere has kept its dirt roads and some of the old grand houses from his childhood still are standing.

Tillman recently was back in Isleworth to help his Darden Restaurants CEO with some IT support.

“This was the first time I was in Isleworth since it is what it is today,” he said. “I was so excited. My mind was way beyond supporting the CEO of the company. After I was done, I probably spent another 45 minutes to an hour to see if anything resembled where I grew up. I recognized a few oak trees, but it was kind of surreal to see where it was just orange trees as far as your eye could see and (now) to see streets and mansions.”

He grew up in a simpler time, and he cherishes those memories.

“We were not affluent by any means,” Tillman said. “We were just some little old country folk doing something with fruit.”

Tillman’s parents moved to Pine Hills when he was in the sixth grade, and he graduated from Evans High School in 1984. His aunts and uncles were some of the first students to attend West Orange High School when it opened. Most of his family lives in the Orlando area still today. Tillman is a resident of Winter Garden.

“I’m proud to say I grew up there and was born there,” Tillman said of West Orange County. “I’ll probably die in this area.”