Thanks for refreshing this, Wesley. I weren't a Catter when it came around the first time.

I grew up in a town (in Wisconsin) where black folks wouldn't dare to come, so I never saw discrimination. The next town to us had a good-sized black population but they learned from experience that they would never get waited on in stores in my home town, and would be verbally abused.. if not physically threatened. I'm glad to say that those days have long since passed, and when my wife and I go out to visit (she is black) we are treated with respect and welcomed with great warmth.

I remember my Mother singing a song to me when I was a little boy, "Stay In Your Own Back Yard." She'd get me up on her knee when I came home from neighborhood taunting and bullying, and sing me the song, and I really identified with the little black boy in the song. I'll put down the only fragment I can remember of the song, and maybe even start a thread to see if anyone knows the rest. It would be considered politically incorrect to sing it now, ironically. The song taught me not to judge anyone by their color.

The chorus is:

"Now honey, you just stay in your own backyard
Don't mind what those white folks do

It had words like pickaninny and nappy-headed in it. And I can remember parts of other lines. Guess I'll ask Mom to sing it for me. She's 95 and a lot more mentally alert than I ever was. :-)

Jerry