Short Stories During Early Childhood(1928 – 1941):
- “My father was a sharecropper with his father and would go all the way from Texas to Oklahoma and back. Peanuts were one of the crops. Horses was another, taking us back to our great uncle, Boley, and grandparents.” (Boley, OK is named after the first baby born in the town, our great uncle.)
- “At age 13, I faced prejudice for the first time on a road trip up California, right outside of Delano, CA. We went to a diner across from the gas station after filling up the car and I was excited to have this steak at the restaurant. After ordering the food to the table and the steaks reaching them, one of the cooks came out the kitchen with a cleaver, saying this is California. We immediately flipped our plates over and left the establishment.”
- “Our first home in Los Angeles, had no grass or flowers. There was a dirt road and we had a bench out in the front. Our second home was a shotgun house.”
- “I took my first steps in California.”
- My first job was in my tweens, making $4 a week working as a maid in Beverly Hills when it was segregated and I couldn’t walk anywhere without my boss or else…