History in the making
By ElicBxn
@ElicBxn (63594)
United States
October 4, 2016 12:16am CST
Our friend here @winterose has a newsletter she puts out that I enjoy reading when it arrives in my inbox.
Today, one of the stories was about how the writer watched with her mother Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington.
That brought to mind my own event.
It was June of 1963. I was at a friend's house playing.
I don't remember why, but her mother, a lawyer and later a judge, Mary Pearl Williams, was watching TV. She said to me, and maybe her daughter.
"You should watch this, this is history in the making."
I do remember sitting down on the floor and watching the news program.
It was when George Wallace stood in the door of the University of Alabama and blocked the entrance of 2 black students. What I actually saw were the National Guard forcing him to step aside and letting them pass.
Now, over 5 decades later, I still remember this event.
I also still have a great deal of respect for Mary Pearl who was to become a District Court Judge and her husband, Jerry Williams, who later served on the 5th District in New Orleans. May their rewards in the beyond be more than worth any trials they had on earth.
All of their children became lawyers, but none followed them into practicing law. My friend was the Valedictorian of my graduating class.
I was never a standout student, but I grew up around really smart people, I never wonder anymore why I didn't think I was very smart, even though it seems I tested that way. (Too bad they didn't know about learning disabilities when I was growing up...)
4 people like this
3 responses
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
4 Oct 16
@LadyDuck - I see... you are more my brother's age, but of course you wouldn't remember an event like I described because it wouldn't have effected you nearly as much in Italy as it did in the States, especially not another Southern state like Texas.
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@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
8 Oct 16
That is an interesting story. They must have been great parents as well as good judges. Maybe I had a learning disability too. I resisted as often as possible. She was right about history in the making part.
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@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
9 Oct 16
@JamesHxstatic but she wasn't working when the kids were small...
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@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
9 Oct 16
@ElicBxn Ohh, sort of like now when both parents work and kids go to daycare.
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@AJ1952Chats (2332)
• Anderson, Indiana
16 Dec 16
I remember Uncle Jim telling me that he always found it hard to read and had been diagnosed with a vision problem when he was in grade school, and that glasses didn't help. Had he been going to school today, I have the feeling that he would have received an accurate and much more helpful diagnosis (not to mention the resources to go with it): dyslexia.
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
16 Dec 16
I hear that. I kept being sent to the speech therapist when I was in grade school. After being sent for 3 years at one school and again in 5th grade at a new one, she actually kept me for therapy. I know that my brother had some difficulty reading at grade level and had to go to a class in 3rd or 4th grade. I remember reading over his shoulder silently and reading faster than he did aloud, but because of the speech problem I also couldn't read aloud well. Things are better now catching the various learning problems.
1 person likes this