Hearing stories from my great grandmother is pretty amazing. I asked her what was the most amazing thing she’s ever experienced in her lifetime, and she said I experienced a lot. Of course that isn’t the best answer because I want to know specifics, but eventually she said being able to see her grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchild.
She’s going to be 90 next year. And that’s amazing to me that I come from a family that appreciates family so much. She’s seen the first African-American president, she’s lived through wars, she’s lived through segregation and desegregation, as well as women’s suffrage.
To know that being able to see me is at the top of her list is truly amazing to me.
Her stories speak volumes to how far we’ve come as a people and how much communities have changed as well. She was telling me about how she used to go to a store and put things on credit. Nowadays a credit card is as close as you’ll come to that. It’s amazing that we don’t have that trust in the community anymore to charge it to your account with them. Today, if you don’t have it all, you don’t get it at all.
Another part of the story was that the store owner was a part of the KKK and he used to have meetings across the road from his store. I’m proud to see that we have come to a point where we aren’t forced to give our business to people who hate us for no reason, and that we have options today to shop where we want, sit where we want, and eat where we want.
Times have changed a lot. In my own lifetime I have been amazed by some of the things I have witnessed. But I think yesterday I witnessed something just as amazing as all that other stuff when I spoke with grandmother. I was proud. I am so honored that of all the things my great grandmother has seen and witnessed, of all the stories she could share, of all the things she has seen people overcome, at the top of the list I stand. That’s pretty awesome.