The time of my life

I was listening to my iPod the other day, totally immersed in Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ having the time of their lives, when someone drove by laughing at my car dance. A long time ago I decided to have the time of my life every day, regardless of what other people think, and I’ve [...]

George Wallace

The first time I saw George Wallace I was babysitting for friends of my parents and watching their television in early fall 1962. He was so utterly disgusting and racist that I thought to myself “well, at least nobody will vote for anyone that awful.” Clearly, I did not have the pulse of the people [...]

Scary movies

Every August, the church we went to in Birmingham had a Friday night sleepover at the preacher’s house for the high school young people. Thinking about it, my heart goes out to the family, to let about 100 teenagers invade their house. My friend Lynn brought her best friend to the first one we went [...]

Telstar, tea and bare feet

On July 10, 1962, the U.S. launched AT&T’s first telecommunications satellite from Cape Canaveral. Instant availability of information is something everyone takes for granted now, but in 1962 Telstar was a technological marvel that opened doors previously closed. On its sixth orbit, it transmitted its first images. The big show, however, came the next day. [...]

The mission conference

By the time I was in college, I’d learned not to tell my parents things they didn’t want to hear. I wasn’t allowed to go to my high school’s senior prom. I told them I was going to the movies with some friends, which was true. However, I told them we were going to a [...]

Shame, shame, shame!

When I was born I’m sure my parents looked at me, given the danger in which my birth put my mother, and asked themselves what I would be – a famous doctor, an inventor, in my family a preacher, a writer? Little did they know. When I was little, I told my parents I wanted [...]

The day we lowered the flag

Friday, November 22, 1963, was a typical late fall day in Birmingham. At 72 degrees, it was jacket weather only because it was a little windy. There was an air of anticipation around school because the following week was Thanksgiving, and the Alabama-Auburn game would be played the following Saturday. It was bound to be [...]

The New England trip

In August 1960, my father, mother, brother and I took a long vacation to New England. Vacation for us, mostly work for Dad who had a two week course on adult education at Boston University. We were in North Carolina when they first told us Dad’s alma mater, Howard College, had offered him a job. [...]

Listening to Stokely Carmichael

When we heard that Stokely Carmichael would be speaking at nearby all-black Miles College in Birmingham on April 4, 1967, we decided to go. I was familiar with the College’s campus from the previous year when I was part of a group tutoring black students who’d integrated Birmingham schools. Miles College was founded in 1896 [...]