Friday: A day to relax and, to THINK!

I barely got out of the stick and brick today....walked around to the backyard to see how the plumbers had finished installing a new pipe/sewer line from the house out to the street to join with the city sewer lines. We had contracted to have it done while we were in New Orleans......and, it is done!

Today......I have been thinking a great deal about this week.....and how when we left F'town on Sunday morning and then returned here yesterday evening......just how much our country has changed.....it is not the same country as it was last weekend. And.....when I think of all of this history that has been made this week as I did today......once again those tears are uncontrollable and they are soon dripping off of my face.......I just can't control all of the emotions that have been stimulated by this election!

I may have mentioned before some of what I am going to say, but I am again going to write about just how deep my feelings are when it comes to the subject of race in our country.......

When I went to school in a small town of about 3000 people from 1949 to 1961.....those people were all white, yet.....we did have a couple of black families that lived outside of this small town....out in the country, perhaps because it was safer, or it was because there were probably some laws that would not allow them on the streets after dark. Each day, a school vehicle took a small number of children from those two families to another school 30 miles away where they could attend a school with other black children. I do not know if it was a segregated school or not.....but, most likely it was. And.....every evening they would be returned to their homes in the country.

I never really knew much about this.....just a hazy memory of it being discussed from time to time.....my mother was always very active in the school's PTA, serving in many offices in that organization.

When I graduated in 1961, due to some very positive events that had happened to me with my music/piano performances and I enrolled at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO, where I had studied piano privately with their Artist-in-Residence concert pianist for the last two years of high school. Lincoln U. was originally a college that had begun as a college for black students....and was formed after the Civil War. When I attended, the student population was 85% black and 15% white.......having been integrated after 1954.

My mother had raised my sister and I to know no color in people......and I will forever be sooooo thankful for that!!! Soooo, being a student at Lincoln was not really much of a culture shock for me........and it was a place that I felt right at home. Being a music major meant that I instantly had a campus family........as any music major will tell you, all of us were family within that department. And.....soon I became a member of the University Band, as well as the University Orchestra and University Choir.

Quite obviously, my best friends were black...........and we had great times together, as do all friends while going to college. At the end of my 1st year, I was asked to pledge and join one of the social fraternities at Lincoln.......and I was one of the very first white students to have had the honor to join the black frats! Not having many financial resources for college, I declined. However, soon afterwards....I was asked to pledge Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.......a professional/social music fraternity.....and I did so......and what a great time it was.....and still is when I now see my former students who are music majors and we soon become Frat Brothers!

I travelled with the University Band to other college campuses.....and some of them were almost completely black. WOW.......it was GREAT.......we had such fun, sooo exciting. However, a couple of the trips through other states opened my eyes to the things that my friends could not do....things that I COULD do. Such as.......eating in certain restaurants/cafes, the three restrooms situations, the drinking fountains, etc., etc......things that my students in the past years could not even fathom......could not understand at all. One time when we were stopped for an evening meal....and going into the cafe, I sat down with some of my friends.....and I was given a menu, but they were told they could not sit there. Soooo, I ordered....and then got up and walked out!

I used to eat in a cafe up on the main street of Jefferson City once a week or so......and I began to become aware that all of the tables up by the LARGE plate glass window ALWAYS had "reserved" signs on them....... One evening when I went in, all of the other tables were full of diners....but, the management told me to go ahead and sit at the "reserved" tables as they weren't really reserved!!! Well.........soon after that evening, I returned and asked if I could sit at one of the tables up front.....and was told to go ahead....not a problem.

Well........about five minutes after I was seated and had placed my order, some of my friends came in and joined me sitting beside the window. Hmmmmm,...... the manager came unglued, but we were allowed to finish our meals. I did this several times in the next few weeks....and soon I was asked to not return to this cafe!

In Jefferson City, the bowling alley was not integrated........and so, at some point in time, I joined many of my friends for several days at the bowling alley to carry a sign and to walk around the circle drive...and around....and around....and around, carrying that sign calling for them to open the place for the blacks from the University and the others living in Jeff City!! And.....finally, we were successful.....with a token evening each week where the black families and students could go bowling. SUCCESS!!! And....later as time went by it was totally integrated for any day, for any time of day.

Another time, I was asked to accompany my best friend to his home in East St. Louis, IL, for the weekend. And, of course, I went!!!! What an incredible experience it was to go to the all black neighborhood bar and BBQ place for Saturday evening...........it was great!!!! And, his family......I was welcomed with open arms!!

And there many, many more wonderful experiences while going to school there.......experiences that most of my high school friends never had the chance to have, to learn from, to enjoy. How very, very lucky I was.......as those years at Lincoln changed my entire Life. Tolerance, acceptance, diversity, and most of all.....love for others no matter what the race.......all of these became a part of my Life...and to this day, they remain even stronger than ever.

And soooo, having gone through experiences such as above.....seeing the "other side" of Life for those who did not have white skins.........and then experiencing this wonderful day this week.....the election of a President who is black(albeit only half black)......well, it is has been something that I never, never thought I would ever see in my Lifetime......and as I said above, the tears continue to flow out of these old, aging and evolving eyes of mine. I am soooooo excited, I am so overwhelmed, and I am sooooo happy that our country is finally beginning to mature ...and to grow..... and to accept those with skins that are not white.

I sit here with goosebumps all over me.....just remembering Tuesday night, November 4th, 2008. This IS "change"........and for me, it is almost more than my emotions can handle......and, not only for me, but for all of those millions of black families there is hope.....hope that for everyone..........

LIFE CAN BE REALLY, REALLY GREAT AS IT HAS BEEN FOR ME........And, as I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!!