Childhood Memory

My father was a lifer in the Air Force. The last year before he retired he was stationed in Bangor, Maine. I was in the fourth grade. A grocery store held a contest for sayings stressing being safe walking to school. I won, or I should say Dad did as he gave me the winning saying. “Stop, look, and listen or from school you’ll be missing.” Dad and I went to the store to claim my prize. To this day, I still remember the look on the store manager’s face when he learned why we were there. This was back when the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning in the South. This was back when most white folks in Maine had never seen a Negro. My father had grown up in Texas and knew the laws of segregation well. The manager quickly reached into a drawer and handed me a broken men’s watch. Then we left.