It was in late fall of 1975 and my brother and I were in our new school in Michigan—our family had moved into town over the summer.
I was in third grade and he was in fifth grade.
We happened to be playing with two of our new friends: Edward and Joe. They were brothers too—Edward was in my class and Joe was in my brother’s class.
At that particular moment the four of us were on the teeter-totters, laughing as each of us went up and down. My brother shared one with Joe, and I was with Edward.
Two of the older teachers stood watching, and one smiled and commented to the other: “Isn’t that a beautiful thing?”
I didn’t understand what she really meant until many years later. You see, Joe and Edward were black and my brother and I were white. And we didn’t care. We didn’t even know that some folks thought we weren’t supposed to like each other.
In 1975, I was also in primary school in Michigan- second grade in Flint. My memory of that time is, shall we say, not as good. But I’m glad for your warm and fuzzy memories!
Very nice. Reminds me of (I think) a South Park episode. If I remember correctly, the kids were all talking about a drawing of a bunch of kids bowing down to one in the middle…the adults didn’t like the picture.
One of the adults finally explained that it was racist - the kids bowing down were black, and the one in the middle was white…or something like that. One of the kids responded that they didn’t even notice the colors.
I can’t find it right now…maybe I dreamt the whole episode…
-D/a
My little sister, aged 2, and her best friend Suzie, took off all their clothes and ran down the street naked, hand in hand, giggling their heads off.
The next year, Suzie said to her mother, of my sister, “hasn’t she got a lovely tan?”
Suzie was as blond as you can imagine, with pale blue eyes and hair that was almost white. My sister is mixed-race, with an afro, and that year her skin was darkened nearly black by long days playing with Suzie in the summer sun.
Ah. I found references to that episode, but since I didn’t remember it being a flag, I didn’t follow up.
I almost…but not quite…mentioned that it might have been a circle of white people around a black person. I decided not to because I couldn’t come up with a plot line that made sense. Guess my imagination is as bad as my memory right now.
My older brother Tom’s best friend was Russel. Russel was cool and didn’t mind playing with Tom’s little brothers when he came over. Russel was also black.
But Tom’s friendship with Russel set the tone for my future relationships with blacks or any other color.
Thanks Tom.
