"Jack, I’m really hungry." With those few words, my dad’s was on a mission to find a something for my mother to eat.
I know it was difficult to find a restaurant before fast food chains dotted many street corners. Daddy found a restaurant. Finding the correct entrance, he made his way inside to purchase a sandwich. Mission accomplished. Returning to the car, he presented the sandwich to my mom.
Sitting in the front seat of our family’s Buick, my mother took one bite of the sandwich then … she threw it out the window. Mother explained “It doesn't taste right! “
Siting in the back seat, I did not see my father’s face. Years later, I remember my parents re- telling this incident over and over. She took one bite and realized that something might be wrong with the sandwich.
That was over fifty years ago, when we traveled to Tennessee I always an uneasy feeling when we traveled south.. Life in Tennessee was different than in Indiana. It was a time when separate entries and facilities were common for blacks.
This I know, every act of cruelty or hatred did not make my parents become bitter. I can recount incident after incident, where they were often treated less than. Yet, they did not let anger consume their day or their lives. They did not become bitter. By their example, we understood that life was not always fair. Their example allowed their children not let life’s hardships make them bitter and angry.
They chose to be engaged, informed and always vote.
In their daily lives, mother and daddy, chose to live a life of love. Loving God, loving each other, loving their children, their work…
“Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:21 (KJV)
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