OLD HOME ELEGY
I reached intellectual and physical maturity as a black man in the early 1960s, while yet a "boy," still living at home with my family. We went to church every Sunday, ate family dinners together and we all highly valued school, learning, education.
Both Daddy and Mama had jobs. Chores around the house were us kids' jobs . We lived by a big green, natural park, playground, athletic field, and public school all in one .
A library, stores, convenient public transportation by bus, and city hall, were just up the street, up Rockhill Road, on Manchester. We all drove cars and owned our own homes.
We were blessed, even if we didn't know that we were blessed by God.
This recitation of basic, personal, mundane facts, about my own life, were common characteristics shared with many of our neighbors, all who were mainly black. So, we were not extraordinary at that time.
Yet, these facts may seem to be strange, made-up, very rare today, in 2016, if one believes the views of some popular, present-day opinion makers, who are alleged experts!
That said, there were still real-life dramas back then, not as today with the police, all of whom we knew well, but with similar, nearby communities of color, like the ever-dangerous Meacham Park, which our family had moved from in 1963.
In addition, there were guys from nearby Richmond Heights, whose hatted-males brandished a species of "cool," that our Webster Groves girls often deemed to be charming which caused friction and fights.
When I started writing this piece, my purpose was to encourage the reading of the classic, SOUL ON ICE by Eldridge Cleaver, and/or his post-baptized book, SOUL ON FIRE , as I have done and enjoyed.
But, I became diverted by my own nostalgic memories of our old street, Eldridge Avenue in Rock Hill, Missouri, Webster Groves School District, about 5 miles southwest of the City of St. Louis, idyllic indeed!
Please read Eldridge Cleaver, and please also forgive my elegiac, if inelegant, old personal threnody.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
SOUL ON FIRE
OLD HOME ELEGY
I reached intellectual and physical maturity as a black man in the early 1960s, while yet a "boy," still living at home with my family. We went to church every Sunday, ate family dinners together and we all highly valued school, learning, education.
Both Daddy and Mama had jobs. Chores around the house were us kids' jobs . We lived by a big green, natural park, playground, athletic field, and public school all in one .
A library, stores, convenient public transportation by bus, and city hall, were just up the street, up Rockhill Road, on Manchester. We all drove cars and owned our own homes.
We were blessed, even if we didn't know that we were blessed by God.
This recitation of basic, personal, mundane facts, about my own life, were common characteristics shared with many of our neighbors, all who were mainly black. So, we were not extraordinary at that time.
Yet, these facts may seem to be strange, made-up, very rare today, in 2016, if one believes the views of some popular, present-day opinion makers, who are alleged experts!
That said, there were still real-life dramas back then, not as today with the police, all of whom we knew well, but with similar, nearby communities of color, like the ever-dangerous Meacham Park, which our family had moved from in 1963.
In addition, there were guys from nearby Richmond Heights, whose hatted-males brandished a species of "cool," that our Webster Groves girls often deemed to be charming which caused friction and fights.
When I started writing this piece, my purpose was to encourage the reading of the classic, SOUL ON ICE by Eldridge Cleaver, and/or his post-baptized book, SOUL ON FIRE , as I have done and enjoyed.
But, I became diverted by my own nostalgic memories of our old street, Eldridge Avenue in Rock Hill, Missouri, Webster Groves School District, about 5 miles southwest of the City of St. Louis, idyllic indeed!
Please read Eldridge Cleaver, and please also forgive my elegiac, if inelegant, old personal threnody.