The big red soda machine stood against a wall in the middle of the long hallway of the school building, looking out the double doors to a wide yard and just beyond, a main highway.…
Category: Culture
Flash! magazine and the “fair skin jinx”
Posted in Black history, Culture, Music, and Uncategorized
To be honest, you could not tell from the cover photo that it was a magazine aimed at African Americans. The fair-skinned man had all the markings of what I would normally expect to see…
I found the bronze-looking statue of the boy on a table near a wall among furniture and other items prior to a special sale at the auction house. It took a while to find him,…
It was always a chore for me to try to figure out the mileage from here to there by consulting a travel atlas. I recall pulling out the map book, looking at the “Mileage and…
Discovering grits, black history & the ‘big house’ in NC
Posted in Black history, Culture, slavery, and travel
Before we had even reached Asheville, NC, I had read on the web that the locals considered Tupelo Honey Café as one of the best in the city. So when a worker at our hotel…
Food auction & more at Amish Mud Sale
Posted in collectibles, Culture, and food
From where I stood under a tent in the shade out of the sun, I could see tables of brown cardboard boxes under another tent not too far away. They were different from what I’d…
A black church’s cemetery under a child’s playground
Posted in Black history, Culture, Death, and slavery
Amelia Brown was 26 years old when she died in Philadelphia in 1819. No one today knows who she was, how she lived, or whether she was married or had children. All we have is…