Two books I recall reading as a kid: Louis Armstrong’s autobiography Satchmo! and Richard Wright’s Black Boy. The former the librarian wouldn’t check out to me b/c of my age – not sure what age – so my aunt checked it out for me. The librarian was right – the book did make me go on to marry a Black woman.
I understood a lot in Wright though I should read it again. Those influences were there for Whites in the 40s and 50s if you looked for them. I like Satchmo b/c my mom’s boyfriend worshipped him………. OK, so I must have been 8 or 9 b/c by my 10th birthday we were in AZ. Wright was probably when I was a sophomore in high school, in Dothan, AL. no less.
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
When I was eight, the librarian called my mother to ask whether I was allowed to check out Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
You know, she may have been right, too. I found the three vampiresses to be very seductive and alluring. Maybe librarians know something about the febrile teenage mind.