(Found this in an early blog system I was testing… 3/10/2003)

Riding home from the Girl Scout father / daughter dance where Kelly, Mary Claire, and I all danced to oldies dressed in Hawaiian outfits, Mary Claire asked… “Dad, when you were born, did girls wear Poodle skirts.” Kelly jumped in, “That was in the 50’s.” I added, “And I was born in the sixties.”

Thinking about that, she then asked, “When you were born, were you free?” I asked her, “What do you mean by that?” She said, “You know how Martin Luther King helped make people free.”

I was surprised by her question. “Mary Claire, when I was little, I wasn’t black.” Kelly started laughing. I went on to explain how when I was born, there was segregation, but that I was little when Martin Luther King helped get rid of separate seating on buses and in restaurants, so I didn’t really remember things being segregated.

“She thought about that…. “Well did you have big hair?” I asked, “Do you mean an afro?” She said, “Yes.”

I had to explain to her again, that I wasn’t black when I was little. Kelly kept cracking up.