I want to close out this past year with some reflections from 50 years ago. Yes, that is correct, 50 years ago. I dedicate these memories to my late mother Marie Eva Glover, foster moms Pearl Blake and Maude Pinder, late sisters Mary and Mary, late brother Paul and all my living relatives Silvia, Cecelia, Marguerite, Alice, Lynette, Diana, Cornell, and Hazel and my dad Cornell Sr.
June 16, 1968, was graduation day from Our Lady of Victory Catholic School (OLV) in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn, NY. We all had big dreams that day as we encouraged each other with these words from the Sound of Music: “Climb every mountain, Ford every stream, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream.” Dreams that would need all the love we could give, every day of our lives for as long as we lived.
After receiving our diplomas and fellowshipping with family and classmates, many of us departed off to our summer vacations or first summer jobs. Come September when school started again we would all be in different high schools not sure if we would ever see each other again. It was going to be an exciting time in our lives as young adults.
However, 1968 did not start out as the best year for our country. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong surprised our troops in Vietnam with their Tet Offensive. This made an unpopular war even more unpopular. It did not help that our troops participated in the Mai Lai Massacre killing as many as 400 innocent families, women, and children. Our country was still in a turmoil even though civil rights legislation was signed four years earlier, our civil rights leaders still had to march. There was to be no letting up. Our cherished leaders were assassinated: Martin Luther King was felled in April and Robert F. Kennedy, my home state US Senator was felled in June. Ironically, I had received a response from Senator Kennedy to a letter that I wrote to him as part of a class project on US Government shortly after he passed away.
I made my first school trip to our nation’s Capital. DC did not have a subway system back then and it was a lot easier to get into a Federal Building for a tour. Now, I work in the nation’s capital and every federal employee or contractor has to have some type of badge.
I participated in my schools first oratorical competition that year. I took first place giving a speech about Africa’s non-alignment. The nuns at Our Lady of Victory and my mom prepared me well. I was grateful that my mom was in the audience that day as I had someone I could look to calm my stage fright. I qualified for the Archdiocese competition and I gave a speech about Malcolm X. The competition was tough. I earned first runner up among the boys. The other person from my class, a young woman named Sandra won the grand prize for the girls. I was also selected for the NYC Archdiocese All-City Chorus. I had to audition at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In addition, I was selected to be a worship leader with some of our other choir members as the Catholic Church shifted to a new worship model of using guitars instead of the organ. I remember leading the song “Morning Has Broken” by the former Cat Stevens.
Nineteen Sixty-eight, 1968 was the year that I learned the meaning of the word “surreptitious”. One meaning is sneaky. I rather felt bad for the person in my class who was accused of being surreptitious because we were friends. However, he was caught cheating and teenagers can be very critical well they start calling you names.
My job that summer was with the city of New York at $1.50 an hour working with children in the projects that my grandmother Hazel Hayes- Cuffey Shelto lived. I met my second crush in those projects. Her name was Dawn. I was 14 and she was 12. I was always reminded of the famous Sam Cooke song, “Only Sixteen” when it came to Dawn. Since I was now earning some money, my mom allowed me to pay for my own haircuts. I decided to follow the lead of some of our black revolutionaries and to get met hair styled into an Afro. Afros were symbolizing our African heritage and we were trying to show the world that we were black and proud. Our afro’s and the raised black power fist became a symbol of the struggle for equal rights and equal representation.
I attended my first party in the summer of 1968. My mom managed to get my late cousin Barbara Johnson to help me pick out some clothes for the event and I attended my first concert at the Apollo Theater with my mother’s childhood friend Richard. I saw Nancy Wilson for the first and only time LIVE. What a beautiful voice and a beautiful lady. I learned today that she passed away at 81 years of age. Rest in Peace Nancy.
When summer was over, it was off to Alexander Hamilton Vocational and Technical High School in Brooklyn, NY. I managed to see a few friends from Our Lady of Victory: Steven Huntley, Michael Antonio King, and Roy Lord. The first week was very interesting. My homeroom teacher, Mr. Wozniak wanted to know if I was a jockey since I was small for my age. In fact, there was one day the students guarding the door refused to let me in because they thought I was still in elementary school. We learned of the death of one of our classmates from OLV: Cecil Bowen. He was about my age. He died of an overdose of heroin. It was very sad. We weren’t in school long before the teachers voted to strike and sent us all home packing. However, when we finally started back up our major holiday breaks were taken away so that we could get our required number of school day in.
Richard Nixon won the presidency that year which did not make my parents very happy at all. However, my parents won a local election for the community board.
As usual, the year came to end with Christmas followed by New Year’s Eve. We celebrated Christmas by attending midnight mass at the Good Shepherd Mission on Blake Ave. It was a combined service (English and Spanish) officiated by Father Regan. I helped lead some of the Christmas songs. My mother truly enjoyed this service every year that she attended. It was also the last year that I sang for the Christmas parties that were hosted by the Sisters (nuns) for all families in the area. They would host the parties based on the street that you lived on. There would be a party for the kids who lived on Amboy Street, then Herzel Street, then Bristol Street, etc. Since we lived on Sutter Ave above a vacant storefront, we seemed to be left out of the party until that 68 year when one of the nuns realized that our family too was one of those needy families. Six children, Mom and Dad and Princess our dog. There were some leftover Christmas gifts that I was given to take home that year.
Nineteen Sixty-eight (1968) was the year that I was voted “Most Likely to Succeed”. What I have learned in these last 50 years is that Success is not a Destination. Success is a journey. Along the way, you will encounter trials and tribulations, and wins and losses. You will make mistakes! Big ones and little ones. Hopefully, you will learn not to repeat the same mistakes over and over and can move on from there.
A lot has changed physically for me in 50 years. I no longer have an Afro. It seems the hair on my head is getting shorter and grayer every year. I have facial hair now, mustache and beard, which looks pretty good I must say. I have grown children, grandchildren, and a GREAT Granddaughter as well.
A lot has changed in our country as well and a lot remains the same. Ecclesiastes 1:9 states ” What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (NIV)
As this year past year ends, let me suggest that you take the time to reflect on all that has happened so that 50 years from now you can reflect on the Memories in the Corners of Your Mind. I pray that they will be good memories for you. Things you can share with your family. I leave you with this blessing from the Old Testament book of Numbers
“The Lord bless you
And keep you;
25
The Lord make his face shine on you
And be gracious to you;
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The Lord turn his face toward you
And give you peace.”
I was really hoping that 2018 would end on a positive note. However, I learned two things recently that will affect my future:
- HBO will no longer air-boxing programming. I hope that Showtime will continue to do so because I’m about to ditch HBO and shift to Showtime.
- Rolling Thunder’s last year will be in 2019. I guess I can put off buying that Harley.
