Memories of my growing up years

As far back as I can remember, I lived in foster homes. Actually there were only two--one in Rochester, N.Y., where I was born at Strong Memorial Hospital, and the other in a small farm town, Avon, in upstate New York. It is the second home that I remember most fondly.
I remember the happy times, living on a farm and doing all the things kids can do...running free...exploring nature...bringing the cows in from the meadow...gathering black walnuts...having a small garden all my own...planting seeds and watching them grow...yanking carrots from the earth, brushing them off on my clothing and eating them, dirt and all...bellyflopping down an icy hill on my Red Flyer sled.
I remember spending many a long winter's day squeezed in my secret place behind the huge wood-burning stove in the kitchen, my back against the wall, reading, reading, reading the book resting on my tented knees. My favorite stories were about otters, rabbits, beavers and other small creatures portrayed as humans. I read exciting biographies about Lincoln, Washington and other famous Americans; the story of Booker T. Washington (Up From Slavery) Bible stories; and scads of comic books, which quickly bored me. So I traded them or gave them away until my three-foot pile had dwindled down to nothing.
There were long rides on the yellow school bus, which sometimes got stuck during those harsh winters when snow came down until it was as high as the tops of cars. School was fun to me...I was an eager student and a better- than- average athlete, despite a brief bout with polio when I was age 12. I remember that it rained hard as we waited to catch our bus home after a week at Bible study camp. The next morning my throat was sore, my head ached, and I couldn't bring my chin to my chest. My mom took me to our doctor's office. Our regular doctor was on vacation, but lucky for me a new doctor, just out of the Navy examined me and diagnosed polio. It was in the early stages and I was hospitalized for about three months. Fortunately, I fared better than my room mate who was in an iron lung, and subsequently died. So I was able to play my favorite sport in high school--basketball, and became the team captain in my junior year.
My love of the printed word never waned, but destiny and reality led me to major in secretarial science in the first Associates Degree program at the University of Buffalo. I had received a partial scholarship for the two year program, but the offerings in this new program were very limited. But I was certain I could always find a job as a secretary, which proved to be true, although I left that field to become a journalist. My first job as a secretary was at the Veterans Administration. My first job as a journalist was with the Associated Press. Both in Detroit, Michigan where I took up residence after graduation. More about Detroit in another posting.

© Marlene L. Johnson 2007

I am inspired by

Frederick Douglass who wrote the following on August 4, 1857:

Those who profess to favor freedom,

and yet deprecate agitation,

are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

They want rain without thunder and lightning.

They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.

This struggle may be a moral one;

or it may be both moral and physical;

but it must be a struggle.

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

It never did, and it never will.

Find out just what people will submit to,

and you have found out the exact amount of injustice

and wrong which will be imposed upon then; and

these will continue until they are resisted

with either words or blows, or with both.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the

endurance of those whom they oppress.

My Inspiration

My daughter, Morenike, whose Yoruba name means "I have someone to cherish" is my inspiration. She inspired me when she was a beautiful, happy baby (See left)...and she inspires me now as a beautiful grown up woman. She is creative, ambitious, extremely intelligent, humorous and loving. I really do cherish Morenike. If you want to know more about her check out her blog: http://www.blackpearlfilmworks.blogspot.com