Memory Monday- Going South

Early in the morning I am leaving for hot, hot Arkansas, Union County to be exact. That is where my mother was born and raised and the place of the Rowland Family Reunion. Arkansas and the south has a place in my heart; I was born in Little Rock, yet California raised since the age of two. There are times I feel this twoness, ala W.E.B. Dubois; living in two worlds. I love all things southern, well most things. The food, the history, the cadence and of course the culture. But there are times I have a love/hate relationship. When I hear people talking about how great Atlanta is and how they are thinking of moving back there, or how much land they can buy in Texas, the first thing I am inclined to say is, it's still the south. That is my snide way of saying I am still unforgiving of the south's racial history.

My family has traveled south frequently in my childhood and at a young age I learned the meaning of Jim Crow and that people actually did not like people who look like me. That was hurtful and a painfubeofe I board the plane.l lesson to learn.

For now because of time constraints, I will refer you to my former blog- Memory Monday--Coming of Age in 1963.

http://derarwilliams.blogspot.com/2009/05/memory-mondays-coming-of-age-in-1963.html


I will continue my discourse at a later time, hopefully next week. But right now I have to catch a few zzzzzs. In the words of Ray Charles, "Tell yo mama, tell yo pa, I'm gonna send you back to Arkansas."