Thoughts About My Father

-

For Father's Day I thought I'd post an excerpt from a memoir I am writing.


A thing I can look at, and do often, is a photo of my father that I took on our last trip together to his hometown of Battle, Alabama in May 2001. It is one of him sitting in a folk art gallery. It was located not far from where he grew up in Russell County, in the southeastern part of the state, not far from the Georgia border. He is sitting in a rocker, relaxed, and smiling. Primitive paintings done by local artists make a colorful backdrop. What I love about this picture of my dad so much is that I had coerced him into taking me to the gallery—really just a somewhat broken down general store run by a white man in his seventies, Frank Turner, who called himself the Mayor of Pittsview. Dad, because he had a father’s heart for a daughter, went along with my "art collecting" shenanigans, and we wound up standing in "The Mayor's" office. If you knew my father, you would know his tastes ran toward the Renaissance, Realism, and Norman Rockwell. Things that looked like chickens made it with their feet were not his thing. But he went along with me, his wacky daughter

Still dad tried, in vain, to get me to buy a landscape painting that he thought was "real peaceful and pretty," but I got a drawing of a dinosaur and a dancing man painted on an old shutter and even though he really didn't understand, I was so happy with my finds, and he was so happy that I was happy, he even paid for them, as a treat.

I snapped the picture after he bought me the art. You can see the twinkle in my dad's eyes; they say that just moments before he was able to indulge his daughter. Out of the frame is Frank Turner, who is preparing two glasses of elderberry wine. He tells us more than once he is a staunch Republican and is unapologetic. He and my father marvel at the idea that a black and a white who decades earlier would have not exchanged more than a few words, stayed in their own necks of the woods, were sharing a glass of homemade wine together. It was a sheer wonder to them as they sipped and chuckled in the land of Dixie.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mr. Lorenzo DuFau and the USS Mason

-
Image
The beautiful gentleman you see above is living history. He was part of the only crew of African-American sailors to take a warship, the USS Mason , into combat during World War II. The Mason 's war record included its safe escort of convoys across the Atlantic and its exemplary service in the hunter-killer groups that finally destroyed the German U-Boats that had infested Allied waters. And for its outstanding bravery in guiding an important convoy to port in the thick of a huge storm. It would be nearly 50 years before the men would receive the commendations, (from Pres. Bill Clinton), that the convoy's commander had recommended. I know Mr. DuFau because the story of the Mason was on the cover of the second issue of American Legacy. I wasn't the editor then, but Mr. DuFau keeps in touch, dropping by the office from time to time, and attending some of our events with his wife. He is a truly sweet gentle man, who, last time he went fishing, and knowing that I love seafood,
Read more

“A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it”—Zora Neale Hurston

-
Image
A Zangbeto at rest. Zangbeto are the Vodou guardians of the night among the Ogu or Egun people of Benin, Togo and Nigeria. They are charged with maintaining law and order, and keeping communities safe and secure.   In order for us to even begin to dismantle the artificial construct called race, and the racism against people of color that it serves, we need to decolonize our minds. And that begins with our origin stories. I'll let Djimon Hounsou speak in In Search of Voodoo: Roots to Heaven on YouTube movies or Amazon Prime . This is for folks who feel they'd like to begin decolonizing their minds.    Trigger Warning: There are scenes of animal sacrifice in this film. Bear in mind our own treatment of animals in the American agricultural industrial complex and how we benefit from it. Bear in mind that kosher and halal meat is prayed over by holy men to make it pure. Bear in mind that animal sacrifice is also part of the monotheistic (Judaic, Christian, Islamic)
Read more