GRANDDADDYS LEGACY

A deep conversation with granddaddy at age 12 was a defining moment of my life. Anthony Bailey was "an Ethiopian, not a nigger," he said. He called Mama "black gal, because that's what she was." He talked about often having "to fight honkies and pollocks at his job the Allis-Chalmers plant in Milwaukee." He lived a fast life: sharp clothes, new cars, pretty girls, horse races, and drinking Old Crow "dirty bird." But he dearly loved his only child, his daughter, Margie Dean, "Mama." And us too! He gave us the down-payment for our family home in 1963, that our family occupied for 40 years, in Rock Hill, Missouri at 334 Eldridge. Granddaddy was quite a man, a Navy veteran, a man's man.