re: #168 Man, DangerMan

ditto more or less
there were no black kids in my elementary school 63-69. there was one chinese american.
i was friends with every black kid in middle school (one was my ‘best friend’)
there were 7. i knew all their sibs and families

i didnt ‘learn’ they were ‘black’ until junior year of high school

I had Latino friends whose mothers did not speak English, no big deal, I knew other white immigrant kids whose mothers/grandmothers only spoke Italian, Polish or Croatian.

I hung out with Melvin and Dolores Gates next door. I was well aware that they were black: they got along like Fred and Esther Sanford; he would call her “daughter of darkness” or “blackness personified” but that was just their sibling rivalry.

And I recall bringing over a copy of my sister’s Simon and Garfunkel record. I still recall’s Melvin’s reaction: “What’s this Joe DiMaggio shit?” and he took it off and played me some James Brown…

I am grateful for that sort of cultural enrichment.