Race Relations

As we grow older we slowly realize that:

**** Whether we wear a $3000 or $10 watch - - they both tell the
same time.

Tonight my thoughts on the race controversy.

Most things never happen as fast as we want it to. A kid thinks Christmas will never get here, but it does.

I can remember when I thought I would NEVER reach 16 so I could get my driver’s license.

We have a touchy subject here in the good old USA. Race relations. I smile, sometimes get irritated when I hear race relations haven’t changed.  Believe me, a white man, I think they have changed. Mostly for the better. I do not have any real close friends who are black, but I do have many who are my friends. If I needed them they would be here. If they need me I hope I would be there.

An example of change hit me hard a couple years ago in the small town of Valdese, NC. This town was founded by the Waldensians from Italy. I lived there in the early 1950’s. Segregation was still in full swing. No property inside the city limits was owned by a black man. The movie house was white only. There was no place in Valdese where a Black man could sit down and eat.

I was12-13 years old and had lived in 4 towns in NC and none were this ‘segregated’. Keep in mind my mama and daddy came from North Georgia. BUT in our house if you used the ‘N’ word you could get a swat or a ‘talking to.’  To my mama saying Negro was about as bad, she insisted we use the term ‘Colored’ because it was respectful, and Colored folk appreciated it.

Mama told me once she could not understand Christians who would send money, clothes and food to Africa and would not fellowship with colored people here in our country.

So at the time there were colored water fountains and colored ordering windows at some cafes. Some service stations did provide ‘Colored Restrooms’ but not all.

The only black athletes I heard of were Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis.

So to let you know that there has been change in Race relations. We were in Valdese a few years ago to meet our childhood friends Jim & Bub Page and Robbie Cook and his wife Betty.  As I sat at Myra’s Café in Valdese I saw a mixed couple enjoying a hamburger and fries. As far as I could tell no one paid any attention.

Sherry or I were never in a school where a Black kids attended. The only black person there was the janitor.  Both our sons and all our grand kids have attended integrated schools. So change did not come easy, it HAS come. 

I consider Sticky (John Moore) a friend.  We seldom even see each other anymore but I could depend on him helping me if needed.  The same with Denise another good friend.

I respected ML King. He advanced the cause of race relations more than any other in the last century. A fool killed MLK, I wish another would arise.

I realize I am looking thru White Eyes, but that is how I was born. None of us can get into another’s mind.

Changed?  Yep one black athlete now can earn more in a year than Jackie & Joe earned in their lifetimes combined.

I loudly repeat the words of Rodney King,

                      

”Why can’t we all just get along?”

Nite Shipslog