I write this to recommend a book
to everyone, especially to my good friends who grew up in the South, as I did: “Robert
E. Lee and Me, A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause” by Ty
Seidule, professor emeritus of History at West Point and retired brigadier general
whose stated goal in life was to be a true “Southern gentleman.”
I was drawn to it because of the “recommended
reading” tag by The New York Times. It’s
a book everyone should read, especially those who grew up in the South. It’s
eye-opening and, likely for some, life-changing.
Virtually all of my “growing up” time, my truly formative years, was spent in the South, the segregated South, with “Whites Only” and “Coloreds” signs in evidence on many doorways and water fountains. It was where, in elementary school in Norfolk, Va., where I did most of my growing up, we stood, once each year, outside around the flagpole with the U.S. and Virginia state flags fluttering, to commemorate Confederate Veterans Day. (We did not do the same for [U.S.] Veterans Day.) And, in 1958, the governor, to thwart mandated desegregation, closed schools in Virginia, so I sat out virtually all of that sophomore school year. Even when we eventually returned with just a few months of the school year remaining, we were disrupted most days, having to evacuate the building because of threats and smoke bombs being tossed into the hallways and cafeteria. All to preserve segregation (and the myth).
I’ve also touched on that time
for the Virginian-Pilot, my home-town newspaper that I read and delivered as a
youth in Norfolk.
The first was “Lessons from the Blue
Room” (https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_d3c1ead3-6125-53d7-9d32-f5468a882fd4.html).
The Blue Room was a small diner situated in the Black neighborhood directly across
the street from my high school. It featured two big lures – great chili dogs
and a pool table. I learned a lot at the Blue Room, about pool and about life.
Another was “In Search of Earl” (https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/article_990c7b6e-16ca-5285-9cf3-88c7acbe4e19.html)
about a childhood friend during a short sojourn from the segregated South in
1950 California.
Seidule’s book has prompted me to
think even more about my time in the “old South,” including my time in the U.S.
Army in North Carolina at Ft. Bragg (named after an inept and despised, by his
own, Confederate general). That will include an incident that likely would have
resulted in great bodily harm or, perhaps even death, to me and a fellow soldier
had it not been for that African-American G.I.’s common sense.
As many of you know, I’m in the
process of writing a chronicle (book) for our grandchildren that Joyce and I
are compiling about us and what we know about those who came before us. It will
include stories about our time growing up in the “Old South.” (All Joyce’s kin
are from the Carolinas.) I will post virtually all entries on my blog, “Going
Over Seventy,” as each part is produced.
When I post new entries, I will also
post an alert on Facebook; however, I do ask that you “sign up” for my blog, if
truly interested, so you’ll be notified of new entries and make it easier to
comment – which I strongly encourage. Everyone needs an editor, especially me!
And as one of my former students, now dear, dear friend, said: Tables turned!
My former students get to edit me instead of me editing them! That’s something
that I relish, greatly!
