A Life With Color – Part 2
When I was in 5th grade we moved from Fort Worth to Lubbock, Texas. Great thing was that we were moving closer to our family. I got to spend a lot of time with a guy I really loved, my grandfather Bob and grandmother Grace. I loved anytime I got to go to their house now on a weekly basis, instead of at just times when they came to Forth Worth or we were in Lubbock. Moving to Lubbock brought me into a reality I really had not faced in Fort Worth.
I spent my second year of school at Como being one of a few white kids in an all black elementary school. I then went back to my regular school for 3rd through part of 5th grade where there were kids of all colors and backgrounds. We played together and were friends without even thinking of who was different. We just had fun when the teacher wasn’t looking. Then I moved to Lubbock and started school in an all white elementary school. It was weird thinking about it now, but then I guess I just didn’t notice. It was not until I went to Junior High at J.T. Hutchinson in 7th grade that I went to school again with kids who were from other nationalities.
But, let me tell you first about what it was like with my grandmother. It was not long after we moved to Lubbock that my Grandfather Bob died from cancer. So it became Grace and us when we would visit. My grandmother grew up in Portales, New Mexico in the early 1900’s. There was a strong streak of racism in the town then. I’m not saying anything about now, but there used to be a sign letting you know that if you were black you better not be found there at night. It was a serious part of her life, just like many white Americans who grew up in that time. Her views were not pushed on me in a sit down and let tell you about “those people” sort of way. It was just in the way she talked, and when we were in public she looked and treated people. I loved my grandmother, but when I had sons and she would drop a certain derogatory word we would talk to our boys about why that word was not one that we believed in or said. I was careful about who I brought to play Atari at her house, just because I never really knew who would be welcomed. I loved her, more than I can ever say but I always wondered why she didn’t like people who had not done anything to her.
When I went to Hutch I met a group of students who were bussed into our school because they had closed Dunbar Junior High and would take a grade and bus them to a different school. When I started Hutch in 7th grade the students from Dunbar were in 8th grade. I got to know many of them through sports and just being in school together. I never stopped and thought about what they were experiencing coming from a black school to a “white school.” You see Lubbock had 5 or 6 Junior Highs and they were definitely divided by race. There were a couple of Mexican neighborhood schools, a black school and 3 white schools. I remember there was the middle class school, Hutch, and the rich white school, Evans, and then Wilson, which was middle class. It is funny to think back that the schools could be separated by who attended there. When I grew up in Lubbock it was divided by race and income. I worked in the “rich” parts of Lubbock with my step-father laying tile during Junior High. In fact there were parts of town I was told it wouldn’t be smart to drive in once I got my license.
Our family lived in a strange part of town. There were 5 high schools and we lived in the almost middle of town. I think we lived 2 miles from Coronado High School, 1 ½ miles from Monterrey High School, but a little over 2 miles from Lubbock High. Somehow we were in the Lubbock district by a couple of blocks. Little did I know that it would have a lasting effect on my outlook on people and life.
During my 7th and 8th grade years at Hutch I learned that people are people. I became friends with some of the older players who were bussed into our school. The 3 seasons I wrestled I learned their names and they took a liking to me, mostly I think because they all know my older brother who was in 9th grade. Looking back it just seems odd that those kids went to school at a different Junior High and then I think most returned to go to High School at Estacado or Dunbar. It was another time where they put us together and then just separated us once we got older. It still doesn’t make any sense to me. Were they just putting us through school or should we have been educated to deal and get along with people from different backgrounds.
I remember growing up in those years and realizing that whether I thought so or not the beliefs of other people were starting to creep into the back of my mind. One of the churches we attended I believe had an argument about bringing kids of color to church on the bus. My friend’s dad left the church after it, not sure which side of the argument he landed on. Lubbock was definitely a town that was divided by race and it showed. It would be something that struck me as crazy even then. But I knew I better not drive to certain parts of town. Well, that was until I went to Lubbock High School and I found out that not every street has a race. But we’ll talk about that next week.