I Took Five Years On The First

When You Grow Up In A Totally Segregated Society, Where Everybody Around You Believes That Segregation Is Proper, You Have A Hard Time. You Can't Believe How Much It's A Part Of Your Thinking.

North Was Only A Direction Indicated By A Compass--if A Man Had One, That Is, For Otherwise There Was No North Or South Or East Or West; There Was Only The Brooding Desolation.

Before The War It Was Always The United States *are*, After The War It Was The United States Is... It Made Us An Is.

Generally The First Week In September Brings The Hottest Weather Of The Year, And This Was No Exception. Overhead The Fans Turned Slow, Their Paddle Blades Stirring The Air Up Close To The Ceiling But Nowheres Else.

I Don't Want Anything To Do With Anything Mechanical Between Me And The Paper, Including A Typewriter, And I Don't Even Want A Fountain Pen Between Me And The Paper.