I started reading this...sounded "hot"..but for whatever reason never did finish....posting it anyway
Act Three Ch. 01
byhubbyhw©
A fictionalized tale of the wonderful time the wife and I had in Memphis Tenn., the city where the lives and deaths of the Three Kings (Elvis, B.B. and Martin Luther) were woven together in a rich tapestry of rock and roll, gospel, blues, suffering, discrimination, hope, and dreams.
I enjoyed researching slavery, the Civil War, slave breeding, and the Jim Crow South as the background for my story. I was surprised not so much about man's inhumanity to man (Robert Burns), but a *******/mothers inhumanity to their own children of mixed race treating them as animals who could be bought or sold.
If you wish send me an email I'd love to read it. The more favorable comments I receive the more I'm encouraged to write. I've added a new wrinkle bringing eighteen year old twin daughters into the story. You're certainly free to send unfavorable comments, but I don't pay any attention to those-LOL.
Bill
PS: There really is a National Civil Rights museum in Memphis built as an add-on to the Lorraine Motel where ML King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray. I believe it is the duty of every American to tour the museum and the Holocaust museum in Washington DC.
*****
Troy, and his most attractive wife of twenty years, Beth (short for Lilibeth) after finishing a tour of the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee browsed through the museum's gift shop. Both wanted some memento to express to others their newly discovered sense of solidarity for blacks suffering three hundred years of slavery and Jim Crow discrimination.
"I had no idea the conditions blacks have lived under in our country was as bad as the museum portrayed," Beth said shaking her head stricken my the images of a young black man lynched for looking 'inappropriately' at a white woman.
"Ogling, is what they called crime, engaging in 'reckless eyeballing' is what the boy of fourteen was hung for. How could we have known what they went through?" Troy responded, "We've both lived upper middle class lives shielded from all the unpleasantness of knowing how our nation had treated human beings with dark skin pigment as animals. Today we learned that slave labor built this great nation of ours from working the fields to building the While House. Any white person living in America owes a good part of the standard of living we enjoy to all the generations of slaves whose liberty was stolen from them."
"Even though we had nothing to do with it I still feel a sense of guilt that our family ancestors, and of course us have been enriched, either directly or indirectly, by such inhumanity." Beth said with her eyes welling up with tears, completely agreeing with her husband.
"We can only go forward, nothing can change the horrible past. I hope we can find some small way to help them in the struggle to end the racism that still exists in the country today. It wasn't until the early 1960's that blacks and whites could marry in all fifty states." Troy added, saying racism in other forms is alive and well in America.
A black museum gift shop clerk walked by wearing a black T-shirt with the single word 'Eracism' in white printed on, which struck both Beth and Troy as exactly what the United States needed to do...erase racism.
"I want one of those," Beth said, with Troy telling her he did to.
Looking through the T-shirt selection they couldn't find any so they asked the clerk wearing it where they could buy one.
"It's a special promotion T-shirt given to everyone who works at the museum or to members of the public who sign up to be volunteers," she said, with both Beth and Troy thinking volunteering was something they each wanted and needed to do.
"What's expected of us if we decide to volunteer?" Troy asked.
"What's expected is very little, most volunteers give back way more than what we ask of them. The only thing you are required to do is hand out two hundred pamphlets to your friends and neighbors. The pamphlets outline the history of slavery, past discrimination, and discrimination still taking place today in America with an action plan everyone can use to fight for equality."
"We can easily do that, is there an application form we can fill out?" Beth asked, excited about what they could do to help in some small way.
"Yes, and after you fill it out Mr. Williams will call you into his office for a brief orientation telling you about our volunteer program," the clerk said pointing to Mr. William's closed office door on the other side of the gift shop.
After filling out the application Troy handed it to the clerk who delivered it to Mr. William's office while Beth and Troy waited in a lounge area outside his office to be called in.
Five minutes later Mr. Tyrone Williams, a 6'2" tall broad shouldered muscular black man about thirty five dressed in a Gentlemen's Quarterly featured suit and tie, opened his office door and approached the couple.
"You must be Beth and Troy," Tyrone said, shaking hands with them both telling them to please call him by his first name. "Won't you please come into my office?" Tyrone said locking the door and directing them to a love seat while he sat in a chair opposite them with a coffee table in the middle.
Troy was struck that Tyrone was the black version of his name, or maybe Troy was the white version of Tyrone. Making conversation Troy asked about the 8 by10 picture hanging on a wall of Tyrone taking a full cut at a baseball in a Vanderbilt uniform.
"Yah, I played center field for Vandy some years back. That particular picture was taken with me getting lucky hitting a walk off homer against LSU. Did you play any sports in college?"
"I was the alternate on the school's bowling team my senior year."
"I see," Tyrone said, thinking with Troy's thin, 5'8" frame, he was certainly best suited for non-contact team sports not involving a great deal of strength. Tyrone then turned his attention to their volunteer application.
"I see you are both forty and have been married for twenty years with two identical twin daughters who are eighteen." Going on, he read more of their application out loud to them. "You currently live in Mt. Vernon Illinois with Troy working as a marketing consultant and Beth as a homemaker. So what are you two doing in Memphis and why do you want to volunteer?" Tyrone asked leaning back in his chair appreciating how attractive and sophisticated Beth looked sitting crossed legged from him wearing a very appropriate black dress with large white polka dots and black high heels.
Beth took the initiative telling Tyrone what a significant emotional event the museum tour had on both of them and how they wanted to help right the wrongs of the past three hundred years blacks had endured the horrors of slavery and discrimination.
"I see, and I appreciate your enthusiasm to help. Often times white people who have lived sheltered lives almost feel born again after touring the museum desperately wanting to do something that makes a difference to end oppression. I don't suppose there are too many blacks living in Mt. Vernon?" Tyrone laughed which caused both Beth and Troy to laugh as well.
"We both went to the same high school and out of a graduating class of over three hundred I think only a couple were black, the town was completely rural back then located out in the middle of corn fields. Today maybe 5% of the school is black after some manufacturing jobs opened up attracting black families to town," Troy offered.
"Needless to say the history you were taught in your all white schools was sanitized leaving out the abject cruelty of slavery, telling you that one day Lincoln set us free and we all lived happily ever after." Tyrone said satirically.
"That's pretty much it." Beth said, brushing back her long blond hair, "We've both been taught that racism is not a problem in America and everyone has an equal chance to succeed, never having been exposed to people who have suffered from it."
"I assume that neither of you ever dated a person of color?" Tyrone asked looking at Beth's face for a reaction to his question.
"You are correct, or had any black friends for that matter." Beth continued showing no sign of discomfort being asked if she ever dated a black man.
"So are you two just visiting Memphis for the day on your way back to Mt. Vernon?"
"No actually we are going be here for a couple of weeks. I have a consulting job and Beth came along to keep me company."
Tyrone's eyes uncontrollably opened wide hearing they would be in town for the next couple of weeks.
"That is really, really wonderful," Tyrone said.
"How so?" Troy followed up.
"Usually we ask volunteers to do nothing more than distribute pamphlets, but every once in a while an opportunity exists for volunteers to do something else that makes a real difference in combatting racism and prejudice." Tyrone said.
"Are you saying there's a big opportunity for us to help, I really hope so?" Beth asked, trilled that they had the chance to do something more than hand out pamphlets.
"Have either of you been in any school plays or taken a course in drama?" Tyrone asked.
"I have," Beth answered, "Why?"
"Wonderful, but first things first, I'd like to give you a bit of a background on the museum's funding. We are a non-profit but only earn half of our required revenue from admissions the other half comes from the generous donations from wealthy patrons."
"But we're not wealthy." Troy interrupted, cutting off Tyrone from asking for money they didn't have.
"Of course, I didn't expect you were. What's going to ask of you won't cost you a penny with any expenses you incur paid for by the museum. What I'm simply saying where our revenue comes from." Tyrone assured Troy.
"I'm sorry I interrupted, please go on." Troy said, liking the part about how they would be helping by not contributing money.
"Once a person becomes a patron they are entitled to attend the annual theatrical reenactment of one of the most vile practices during slavery. The better the production quality the more likely they are to renew as patrons, and increase their pledges. Our next production is scheduled a week from now on Saturday night but unfortunately I received word today that the white couple who agreed to be in the production backed out due to a family emergency. If I can't find another white couple to take their place we'll be ****** to cut the third act of our three act play."
"So you're asking us if we would fill in for them?" Troy said.
"Not until you know the history of the part you'll play, and then only after you have given it a day to think it over." Tyrone said, making them feel comfortable they weren't being rushed into anything.
"I've always wanted to do a drama period piece in high school, but never did get the chance, I'd like to know more." Beth said, expressing interest, thinking how much fun it would be to be back on stage after more than twenty years.
"What I would like to do now is give you both a background mini-history lesson covering the events the play portrays. I'll then explain the roles you would be playing and the acting required if you accept the parts. Given the rather desperate situation we are in I can't tell you how much we would appreciate you helping us out."
"So will there be a test at the end of the lesson?" Troy asked laughing.
Act Three Ch. 01
byhubbyhw©
A fictionalized tale of the wonderful time the wife and I had in Memphis Tenn., the city where the lives and deaths of the Three Kings (Elvis, B.B. and Martin Luther) were woven together in a rich tapestry of rock and roll, gospel, blues, suffering, discrimination, hope, and dreams.
I enjoyed researching slavery, the Civil War, slave breeding, and the Jim Crow South as the background for my story. I was surprised not so much about man's inhumanity to man (Robert Burns), but a *******/mothers inhumanity to their own children of mixed race treating them as animals who could be bought or sold.
If you wish send me an email I'd love to read it. The more favorable comments I receive the more I'm encouraged to write. I've added a new wrinkle bringing eighteen year old twin daughters into the story. You're certainly free to send unfavorable comments, but I don't pay any attention to those-LOL.
Bill
PS: There really is a National Civil Rights museum in Memphis built as an add-on to the Lorraine Motel where ML King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray. I believe it is the duty of every American to tour the museum and the Holocaust museum in Washington DC.
*****
Troy, and his most attractive wife of twenty years, Beth (short for Lilibeth) after finishing a tour of the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee browsed through the museum's gift shop. Both wanted some memento to express to others their newly discovered sense of solidarity for blacks suffering three hundred years of slavery and Jim Crow discrimination.
"I had no idea the conditions blacks have lived under in our country was as bad as the museum portrayed," Beth said shaking her head stricken my the images of a young black man lynched for looking 'inappropriately' at a white woman.
"Ogling, is what they called crime, engaging in 'reckless eyeballing' is what the boy of fourteen was hung for. How could we have known what they went through?" Troy responded, "We've both lived upper middle class lives shielded from all the unpleasantness of knowing how our nation had treated human beings with dark skin pigment as animals. Today we learned that slave labor built this great nation of ours from working the fields to building the While House. Any white person living in America owes a good part of the standard of living we enjoy to all the generations of slaves whose liberty was stolen from them."
"Even though we had nothing to do with it I still feel a sense of guilt that our family ancestors, and of course us have been enriched, either directly or indirectly, by such inhumanity." Beth said with her eyes welling up with tears, completely agreeing with her husband.
"We can only go forward, nothing can change the horrible past. I hope we can find some small way to help them in the struggle to end the racism that still exists in the country today. It wasn't until the early 1960's that blacks and whites could marry in all fifty states." Troy added, saying racism in other forms is alive and well in America.
A black museum gift shop clerk walked by wearing a black T-shirt with the single word 'Eracism' in white printed on, which struck both Beth and Troy as exactly what the United States needed to do...erase racism.
"I want one of those," Beth said, with Troy telling her he did to.
Looking through the T-shirt selection they couldn't find any so they asked the clerk wearing it where they could buy one.
"It's a special promotion T-shirt given to everyone who works at the museum or to members of the public who sign up to be volunteers," she said, with both Beth and Troy thinking volunteering was something they each wanted and needed to do.
"What's expected of us if we decide to volunteer?" Troy asked.
"What's expected is very little, most volunteers give back way more than what we ask of them. The only thing you are required to do is hand out two hundred pamphlets to your friends and neighbors. The pamphlets outline the history of slavery, past discrimination, and discrimination still taking place today in America with an action plan everyone can use to fight for equality."
"We can easily do that, is there an application form we can fill out?" Beth asked, excited about what they could do to help in some small way.
"Yes, and after you fill it out Mr. Williams will call you into his office for a brief orientation telling you about our volunteer program," the clerk said pointing to Mr. William's closed office door on the other side of the gift shop.
After filling out the application Troy handed it to the clerk who delivered it to Mr. William's office while Beth and Troy waited in a lounge area outside his office to be called in.
Five minutes later Mr. Tyrone Williams, a 6'2" tall broad shouldered muscular black man about thirty five dressed in a Gentlemen's Quarterly featured suit and tie, opened his office door and approached the couple.
"You must be Beth and Troy," Tyrone said, shaking hands with them both telling them to please call him by his first name. "Won't you please come into my office?" Tyrone said locking the door and directing them to a love seat while he sat in a chair opposite them with a coffee table in the middle.
Troy was struck that Tyrone was the black version of his name, or maybe Troy was the white version of Tyrone. Making conversation Troy asked about the 8 by10 picture hanging on a wall of Tyrone taking a full cut at a baseball in a Vanderbilt uniform.
"Yah, I played center field for Vandy some years back. That particular picture was taken with me getting lucky hitting a walk off homer against LSU. Did you play any sports in college?"
"I was the alternate on the school's bowling team my senior year."
"I see," Tyrone said, thinking with Troy's thin, 5'8" frame, he was certainly best suited for non-contact team sports not involving a great deal of strength. Tyrone then turned his attention to their volunteer application.
"I see you are both forty and have been married for twenty years with two identical twin daughters who are eighteen." Going on, he read more of their application out loud to them. "You currently live in Mt. Vernon Illinois with Troy working as a marketing consultant and Beth as a homemaker. So what are you two doing in Memphis and why do you want to volunteer?" Tyrone asked leaning back in his chair appreciating how attractive and sophisticated Beth looked sitting crossed legged from him wearing a very appropriate black dress with large white polka dots and black high heels.
Beth took the initiative telling Tyrone what a significant emotional event the museum tour had on both of them and how they wanted to help right the wrongs of the past three hundred years blacks had endured the horrors of slavery and discrimination.
"I see, and I appreciate your enthusiasm to help. Often times white people who have lived sheltered lives almost feel born again after touring the museum desperately wanting to do something that makes a difference to end oppression. I don't suppose there are too many blacks living in Mt. Vernon?" Tyrone laughed which caused both Beth and Troy to laugh as well.
"We both went to the same high school and out of a graduating class of over three hundred I think only a couple were black, the town was completely rural back then located out in the middle of corn fields. Today maybe 5% of the school is black after some manufacturing jobs opened up attracting black families to town," Troy offered.
"Needless to say the history you were taught in your all white schools was sanitized leaving out the abject cruelty of slavery, telling you that one day Lincoln set us free and we all lived happily ever after." Tyrone said satirically.
"That's pretty much it." Beth said, brushing back her long blond hair, "We've both been taught that racism is not a problem in America and everyone has an equal chance to succeed, never having been exposed to people who have suffered from it."
"I assume that neither of you ever dated a person of color?" Tyrone asked looking at Beth's face for a reaction to his question.
"You are correct, or had any black friends for that matter." Beth continued showing no sign of discomfort being asked if she ever dated a black man.
"So are you two just visiting Memphis for the day on your way back to Mt. Vernon?"
"No actually we are going be here for a couple of weeks. I have a consulting job and Beth came along to keep me company."
Tyrone's eyes uncontrollably opened wide hearing they would be in town for the next couple of weeks.
"That is really, really wonderful," Tyrone said.
"How so?" Troy followed up.
"Usually we ask volunteers to do nothing more than distribute pamphlets, but every once in a while an opportunity exists for volunteers to do something else that makes a real difference in combatting racism and prejudice." Tyrone said.
"Are you saying there's a big opportunity for us to help, I really hope so?" Beth asked, trilled that they had the chance to do something more than hand out pamphlets.
"Have either of you been in any school plays or taken a course in drama?" Tyrone asked.
"I have," Beth answered, "Why?"
"Wonderful, but first things first, I'd like to give you a bit of a background on the museum's funding. We are a non-profit but only earn half of our required revenue from admissions the other half comes from the generous donations from wealthy patrons."
"But we're not wealthy." Troy interrupted, cutting off Tyrone from asking for money they didn't have.
"Of course, I didn't expect you were. What's going to ask of you won't cost you a penny with any expenses you incur paid for by the museum. What I'm simply saying where our revenue comes from." Tyrone assured Troy.
"I'm sorry I interrupted, please go on." Troy said, liking the part about how they would be helping by not contributing money.
"Once a person becomes a patron they are entitled to attend the annual theatrical reenactment of one of the most vile practices during slavery. The better the production quality the more likely they are to renew as patrons, and increase their pledges. Our next production is scheduled a week from now on Saturday night but unfortunately I received word today that the white couple who agreed to be in the production backed out due to a family emergency. If I can't find another white couple to take their place we'll be ****** to cut the third act of our three act play."
"So you're asking us if we would fill in for them?" Troy said.
"Not until you know the history of the part you'll play, and then only after you have given it a day to think it over." Tyrone said, making them feel comfortable they weren't being rushed into anything.
"I've always wanted to do a drama period piece in high school, but never did get the chance, I'd like to know more." Beth said, expressing interest, thinking how much fun it would be to be back on stage after more than twenty years.
"What I would like to do now is give you both a background mini-history lesson covering the events the play portrays. I'll then explain the roles you would be playing and the acting required if you accept the parts. Given the rather desperate situation we are in I can't tell you how much we would appreciate you helping us out."
"So will there be a test at the end of the lesson?" Troy asked laughing.