My mother and grandmother moved to Allentown after my grandfather died in the late forty’s. He died before I was born. My grandfather was a cattle dealer and a musician. His band, The Colored Fun Makers, was quite popular locally. I am told he was the largest cattle dealer in Lehigh and Northampton Counties. My grandparents owned three farms; one of them was at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Sadly, unscrupulous lawyers took advantage of my mother and grandmother, who were not business savvy and knew very little about my grandfather’s business dealings. My grandfather’s shares in Abbotts Dairy, which later became part of Lehigh Valley Dairy, were gone along with other family assets. Some of which we believe were simply signed away because my grandmother trusted the wrong people.

My mother still longs for country life. She told me that where she grew up everyone was the same and got along. My grandfather had all kinds of people that worked for him. My mother didn’t experience racism until she got toAllentown.

My grandmother bought a home across the way from our house. This made it easier for mom to look after her, and Grammy could maintain her independence. In the early 1960s, we lived in a five-bedroom row house on Lehigh Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Mom painted the front porch battleship gray. Then she hand-painted twelve perfectly matching red diamonds on the mantel on top of the three-quarter cement wall that surrounded the porch. I always knew which house was mine, even in the snow.

My parents were separated when I was three months old. My sister, Catherine, was eleven years older than me. We did not play well together.My mom told me that when I was an infant, my sister put me in a dresser drawer and closed it. She did not want a baby sister. My mother heard me crying and came to my rescue. Growing up, my sister and I were not close. In fact, we were always fighting, but I loved her. One day after school, we were arguing, as usual, about a Beatles record. My sister was watching me till mom got home from the store. She had a nosebleed, told me she was dying, that the small blood clot was her brains falling out, and that it was my fault. I was so scared and didn’t know what to do. So I ran back to the school crossing to get my friend Stella, the crossing guard. Stella was a very nice lady. She had blonde hair that was styled like Sally Rodger’s hair in the Dick Van Dyke Show. She often wore a black and yellow hat similar to a policeman’s ha