RACE AND REMEMBERANCE

To begin, it would be false of me to say that I never was mistreated in Lorain because of color. However, it would be equally false to characterize the city of Lorain as racist- there are other communities nearby that certainly would qualify for such a label, at least at one time.

There were always individuals around with, as we used to say. a "color problem"; generally, people ignored them unless they made a nuisance of themselves.

I remember in the early sixties, when there was such a push for school desegregation, what the fuss was about-our schools were intergrated when my mother attended them. The Grone Folx would talk about places they knew that refused service to black people, but these were generally places that had been and gone long before, or places we couldn't care less about.

When we got older, it was not uncommon to hear that such-and-such a bar wouldn't serve us....so what? There was always another place, right nearby. Also (as I discovered) in some cases, what the problem was was not color, but behavior-a lot of us, when we'd be in our cups, would act like delinquent children, especially around white folks.

A couple of these places became regualr watering holes for me, as I didn't want to be bothered with such nonsense, either; I was perfectly welcome.

(FTR-If you were one of those obnoxious dillweeds who didn't get buzzed in at Shirley's, sometimes I was the one looking out the peephole, and shaking my head....sue me.)

In my family, we were raised to believe that "race" was foolishness, anyhow. I still see it that way.

You'd think we'd find better ways to entertain ourselves.