Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Civil rights

1964
ER — (archived)

During our last year of high school a gang of about a dozen black kids from Progress Village hiked across the mile of grass between their neighborhood and ours and caught us playing football in the empty field behind our houses. Some high tension lines had just been put in, and the ground had been bulldozed clean, leaving a thick layer of pure white sugar sand ideal for cushioning falls, we called it the Dust Bowl. The blacks must have been scouting us for some time, because they brought a football with them as well, and challenged us to a game. There was tension in the air, but we were not about to back down, so we ceremoniously shook hands all around, and they loaned us a few of their guys since we were short. We then played an afternoon of hard, but clean, tackle football. After it was all over, we made arrangements to meet again the following Saturday, and did so again and again for the rest of the season. I even made my first black friend during those games, a fellow I kept running into over the next few years, first at a summer job I had a few years later, in college, and then again when I joined the Naval Reserve just as he was mustering out. America was finally getting around to getting her teeth fixed.

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