I was a boy in 5th grade when we moved to DuBois, PA from Pittsburgh (among other places) On a Saturday morning, my mother dropped me off at the barber shop in our new neighborhood, on the East Side of town. While I waited for my haircut, the adult men who were there for their haircuts and social time got the topic of N****r's. And said, "They know not to move or come to DuBois, because we will be in the streets with our guns to greet them. That's why they know not to come here."
I had no reason to be pro or anti gun ownership, or pro or anti "diversity" but something in my 5th grade mind said, "This is wrong." About 60 years later I live here (again) and I still feel the same way...
The first N joke I ever heard in my life was sitting in Uncle Fred's barber chair. The second was from our nextdoor neighbor, a man recently from the peach state. While dad would laugh, that laugh was different, he never really spoke of why. That strained laugh must have made me take notice as those two jokes are, even now, so clear in my mind.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, it means a lot.
I was a boy in 5th grade when we moved to DuBois, PA from Pittsburgh (among other places) On a Saturday morning, my mother dropped me off at the barber shop in our new neighborhood, on the East Side of town. While I waited for my haircut, the adult men who were there for their haircuts and social time got the topic of N****r's. And said, "They know not to move or come to DuBois, because we will be in the streets with our guns to greet them. That's why they know not to come here."
I had no reason to be pro or anti gun ownership, or pro or anti "diversity" but something in my 5th grade mind said, "This is wrong." About 60 years later I live here (again) and I still feel the same way...
You can learn a lot from visiting a barbershop!
The first N joke I ever heard in my life was sitting in Uncle Fred's barber chair. The second was from our nextdoor neighbor, a man recently from the peach state. While dad would laugh, that laugh was different, he never really spoke of why. That strained laugh must have made me take notice as those two jokes are, even now, so clear in my mind.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, it means a lot.
Mother cried--I love it! I never went in much for haircuts and hence --the same style 63 years later. Mother sighed.
75 now, and not so much to style these days. But then, not too bad either... considering.