By David Sher
I grew up in Birmingham in the ’50s and ’60s.
It’s stunning how much Birmingham and the world has changed.
Everything is different.
Television: My family didn’t own a TV until I was six or seven years old. I can remember when my dad brought home a black and white TV.
My favorite network programs were Kukla, Fran, and Ollie; The Lone Ranger; and Howdy Doody.
My favorite local TV personalities were Cousin Cliff, Benny Carle, and Sergeant Jack (Neal Miller).
Birmingham had only two commercial television stations. Since there were three national television networks, we were unable to view many popular shows.
WBRC-TV/Channel 6 aired ABC programs and WAPI-TV/Channel 13 shared programs broadcast on CBS and NBC.
When I was a teenager we were not able to watch Dick Clark and his wildly popular American Bandstand. WVTM/Channel 13 produced its own afternoon dance program called “13’s Dance Party.”
Air Conditioning: We had no air conditioning in our home. In the evening my family sat on our front porch and actually talked to one another. There were no cell phones competing for our attention. On many hot summer evenings our family would get into our un-air-conditioned car, roll down the windows, and drive around the neighborhood to cool off.
Eventually my parents had an attic fan installed. I can remember lying in bed with the breeze generated by the fan flowing across my face.
Roadways: There were no interstates and no Red Mountain Expressway. My family’s home was on 21st Way above Highland Avenue. When I visit my old neighborhood now it’s unsettling to see that the houses across the street from our home were torn down to build the Red Mountain Expressway.
We often visited my dad’s sister’s family in Chattanooga. That trip on two-lane Highway 11 from Birmingham to Chattanooga took about five hours. Today we drive I-59 to Chattanooga in less than three hours. In those days we saw scores of ‘See Rock City’ and ‘Ruby Falls’ signs on billboards and barns all along the highway. We got lots of laughs from Burma Shave jingle signs along the way.
Radio and concerts: Even after television came along, radio was a big deal. There were only AM stations—no FM stations. My two favorite radio stations were WSGN (610) and WVOK, ‘The Mighty 690.’ In the evenings I listened to Sky Castle on WSGN with local disc jockeys like Duke Rumore, Ward McIntyre, Neal Miller and Tommy Charles.
WVOK was a powerhouse radio station because it broadcast with 50,000 watts. It seemed like you could hear it all over the state. My favorite DJ’s on WVOK were Dan Brennan and Joe Rumore.
WVOK’s ‘Shower of Stars’ brought big name music acts to Birmingham. A dozen or so musical acts would perform at a single show that cost about $1.50. I was able to see many of my favorite singing artists–Bobby Vee, Del Shannon, Gene Pitney, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Pride, Patsy Cline, and Bobby Vinton—often at the same concert. And even better, the shows were held in the cool and comfort of the ‘air conditioned’ Birmingham Municipal Auditorium.
Christmas in downtown Birmingham: When I was a child, everyone went downtown at Christmas time to see the Christmas decorations and winter wonderlands in the windows at Loveman’s and Pizitz. There were so many people downtown that there were policemen at every corner to direct traffic.
The Iron Bowl: Outside of Christmas, I’m not sure there was a bigger day of the year than the Iron Bowl. Alabama played Auburn at Legion Field and Birmingham was literally the ‘Football Capital of the South.’ These games are now played alternately in Tuscaloosa and Auburn, but the game is still called the Iron Bowl.
Trains and Planes: During my childhood most people traveled by train or car. Not too many people traveled by plane. The Terminal Train Station downtown was a magnificent, one-of-a-kind building. Our family drove to the Terminal Station on many occasions to pick up relatives who came to visit from all over the South.
The Birmingham Barons and Rickwood Field: My dad took me every summer to see the Birmingham Barons play at Rickwood Field. The Barons competed with teams like the Atlanta Crackers, The Nashville Vols, the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Memphis Chicks. Rickwood Field, as you know from the recent ‘Field of Dreams’ MLB game, is the oldest professional baseball park in the U.S.
Walked to school: Yes, we walked to school. A group of us children, from 1st to 6th grades walked from 21st Way above Highland Avenue to South Highland Elementary School located adjacent to Five Points South. Our parents weren’t afraid their children would be harmed. In fact, I’m not sure we locked the doors of our home at night.
Telephones: There’s no way my grandchildren could relate to the telephones of our youth. The black (only color) phone had a chord connected to the wall and a rotary dial. Phone numbers had no area codes, but had two-letter exchanges like ALpine (25), FAirfax (32), STate (78), and TRemont (87). All my neighborhood friends had phone numbers like Tremont 9 and then 4 digits. So all I had to do was to remember 4 numbers after the TR9. I can still remember my home phone number: TR 9-5716.
Since we all have cell phones today, neither myself nor my grandchildren need to remember anyone’s number.
Well, that was quite a bit of memory to unpack in a brief period of time so I’ll depart with the famous quote from the Lone Ranger as he departed every television show…
“”A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hardy Hi-Yo Silver Away! (‘Silver’ was his horse)
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David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com.
That sure did bring back memories. My parents first house was at 23 Dexter Avenue and they lost the key to the front door so it was never locked. We had some great times in those years. I tell my wife all the time we are not part of this world anymore!!
David, your article was wonderful and brought back so many memories. I would ride my bike to Mt. Brook Village, go into Gilchrist’s Drug Store and have a small cherry coke (for six cents) served in a cone-shaped paper cup set into an aluminum holder. If I wanted to buy anthing at any store in the village, I just said, “Charge it to my mother.” Growing up in a small community was terrific and safe. I miss it a lot.
So many good and familiar memories here. And if we try to explain what it was like to those who came along later, we are met with skeptical and dismissive looks. So it goes. We did the same thing when our elders tried to share memories.
As for afternoon TV, I also liked Channel 13’s Uncle Bill, whose show always opened with his arrival at the station in his Model-T, “Bumpalot”.
Come to think of it, the Model T’s name was “Bouncealot”.
So that’s why my dad called his old 47 Ford “Bouncealot”! I thought that it was just because that’s what the old clunker did when we rode in it. Not exactly a smooth ride.
It sure sounds lovely. Truly. It sounds idyllic in many ways. I grew up in the 90s and we also enjoyed family traditions and close neighborhood playmates. Nobody ever tried to snatch us when we were out playing. My brother and I deeply loved and respected the family members who DESERVED respect, not simply because they were our elders. If our Uncle hit our Aunt, it was completely acceptable to speak out about it. I happen to think that is a good quality of change that might not have been allowed in 1950s Alabama.
The good news is we can all have that again. We can. All of that and more.
The catch is, in order for that to be our reality in today’s world, it’s going to need to be a reality available to everyone equally. When we stand with those in need, we all benefit. When we denigrate, we all suffer. Our future is ours to write.
It was idyllic, Christopher. Memories for most people usually are because they are the memories of children, children who in the 1950’s were generally unaware of the realities that the adults were creating that would complicate those children’s futures for the rest of their lives. It’s no different today except that today children find out about those realities much sooner, unfortunately.
There will always be those in need, Christopher, just as there will always be those who denigrate. As I look forward from the 1950’s some things are better and some things are not. Utopia never existed and never will. Why? Because we are what we are and that will never change. The reality that you speak of was never available to everyone in the 1950’s just as it is not available now to everyone and never will be. We can only be the best that we can be knowing that there will be those who have no intention of doing anything with their lives except denigrate and destroy. You will never change that nor will I, as much as I would prefer to. We do the best that we can and then we move on, hoping that when we leave we leave this place in a little better shape than when we found it. Thank you.
I don’t think we have ever really collectively tried. We know better, yet we do not do better.
I do think that is changing. I do think knowledge empowers people. Being shielded from reality makes it hard to care about others unlike yourself. It is difficult to see injustice and not care…And I mean really care. I am seeing that, at least here in Georgia. I don’t mean just erecting a statue or designating a special day to a cause. It may not be a universal hunger for positive change, but I actually do care about trying to end the pain of those with generational suffering, be it minorities or rural, poor white people. I’m old enough, and therefore have lived enough, to know the pathway to our best chance at a country of idyllic times of joy and peace will come when we stop talking and actually do a little work to make it happen. That might mean reaching out to people who are very different from yourself. Division, how it is these days, is not the best we can do as human beings.
I grew up during the same time period in the no-man’s land neighborhood of Wahouma between East Lake and Woodlawn. I was not as fortunate as Ms. Harkavy who grew up in the Homewood/Mt. Brook area though. If I had attempted to charge anything to my parent’s account at Fadely Drugs Mr. Fadely would have run my butt out of the store and into the First Avenue North traffic. Location is everything, as they say.
Cousin Cliff was my favorite kid show host. One time my parents got me on the show for my sixth birthday. In those days the birthday children on that day’s show were given freshly baked birthday cakes in a box from Marsh Bakeries. I looked down at my prize and through the cellophane on the box I could see an enormous horse fly zooming around inside the box. I’ll never forget Cousin Cliff’s face when I showed him my cake box with the buzzing infidel inside of it. Good times.
Like David I too went to WVOK’s Shower of Stars extravaganzas. Best value ever if you wanted to see your favorite music heroes all on the same stage. One year Neil Diamond was the headliner. That day also happened to be the same day as the Iron Bowl. Well, the idiot friend that I went to the concert with was listening to the game on his transistor radio as Neil Diamond was belting out his latest hit. Suddenly my idiot friend shrieks out to the crowd, ” Stabler scores!!!” just as Neil Diamond was reaching the crescendo of his song. The crowd went wild. Neil Diamond uttered an expletive, threw down his microphone, and stomped off the stage. Being an Auburn fan I could have killed my friend for several reasons that day. Timing, as they say, is everything.
One more thing and I’m done. The best milkshake to be found on the face of the planet was at a place on First Avenue North and 69th St. called Grayson’s Polar Bear. It was a building fashioned after a glacier with icicles all over it and a polar bear on the roof. Not a live polar bear. Anyway, 35 cents would get you an enormous glass of heaven on a hot summer afternoon with just about any flavor you could imagine available. Just being at the place lowered the air temperature by at least ten degrees, or so it seemed at the time. I couldn’t indulge all that often. 35 cents was a lot of money for me so I had to wait until I could scrounge enough pennies and nickels before I could enter heaven’s gate for just a little while. Ahhh, those memories of summer. Things probably weren’t as good then as our memories tell us they were but they were a hell of a lot better for us than things are now. Oh to live on Sugar Mountain. Neil Young fans will know what I’m talking about. Good day.
I would love to hear if this was as idyllic for our Black neighbors.
Of course it wasn’t and you know that it wasn’t. None of us here are pretending that it was but that doesn’t mean that those of us who grew up during that time and had some nice childhood memories should be ashamed of them just because you think that we should. Nor does it mean that our Black neighbors didn’t have good memories of their childhoods either just because you might think that they didn’t and shouldn’t just because they happened to be black in Birmingham. What is your agenda for bringing up the obvious anyway? Would it displease you that in spite of it all our Black neighbors actually had some good memories of their childhoods in Birmingham too? Your sarcasm belies you. What is it that you really want to hear?
I remember Condoleezza Rice saying some years back that she had a wonderful childhood in Titusville.
Exactly. Thank you for posting that. I know that the Liberals and the haters don’t want to hear that but unfortunately for them there are many Black people who have nice memories of growing up in Birmingham in spite of the obstacles they encountered. Condoleezza Rice is a true Renaissance woman. Good for her.
What utter nonsense. Life for black people in Birmingham. in the ’50s and ’60s especially, was a nightmare always “present” just around the corner and just a few blocks away. Did some communities learn to enjoy life and family regardless of the mountain of hatred all around them. Yes. You do what you have to do to survive. Was it normal and relaxed with a sense of safety like those living in the cocoon that was Mt. Brook and Homewood? Absolutely not. Don’t rewrite history to make your memories “better”. There’s enough history rewriting happening today.
To Marc Howard: Bullcrap. No one is rewriting history and if you had taken the time to read these posts, especially mine, you would have already seen that. NO ONE HERE is denying that Blacks did not have a harder time growing up than Whites did, Lib. NO ONE. You just have your little axe to grind and that is the sum total of your contribution here, which is to say, next to nothing. Stay miserable, Lib. It’s what you do best.
Calling me a Lib is the biggest compliment you can pay me. Take your small narrow mind and go back to you cave. Don’t bother responding. I will have no further contact with you. Have a marvelous life
To Marc Howard: Of course I will respond to you, Marc, and I could care less if you respond back or if you like it or not. You grew up in Mountain Brook, the pinnacle of childhood achievement in the Birmingham of the 50’s and 60’s. Little people like me who grew up lower middle class in the projects of Wahouma could only dream of what Christmas was like or even life in general was like for the over-the-mountain child of Mountain Brook and Vestavia. We didn’t resent you, we just wondered about the magic that it must have been to grow up there. If you recall I took up for you when you posted about your childhood last week saying that you had no need to apologize to anyone for it. And now here you are doing just that.
It was your second post that alerted me to your guilty White Liberalness. You and Christopher should have a cup of coffee sometimes so that you can tell each other how wonderful you are. Proud to be a Lib, are you? 50 or 60 years ago being Liberal meant having an open mind and advocating fairness for all while at the same time having a core of common sense with a healthy dose of awareness of life’s realities. Not anymore. Today’s Liberals are tightly wound balls of virtue signaling scold devoid of tolerance for any opinion that does not share their vision of universal Utopia or how to achieve it. Today’s Liberals are perfectly comfortable with proclaiming how caring and compassionate they are even as they ignore the pain and suffering created by the politics they support and the people who implement those politics, the suffering and sexual exploitation of women and children at the border intentionally created by the monsters of the Biden administration being Exhibit A among many many others. I have yet to see evidence of any Lib speaking out about these horrors or the injustice of biological males beating up women in sports for that matter. Those travesties are just not Liberal enough for today’s Liberal, are they?
I’m narrow minded? More typical Liberal snark that I’m quite accustomed to when I get too close to the real truth of the carefully crafted Liberal inner sanctum. Obviously you failed to read the content of my posts on this forum or if you did you cherry picked words that fit your agenda to use against me, another favorite tactic of today’s sanctimonious Liberal. Thank you for wishing me a marvelous life, though. After a rough start health-wise I have indeed had quite a marvelous life, to use your words, and I look forward to much more of it. I am neither Republican or Democrat and unlike you I have no political guilt to weigh me down on my journey. My politics are the politics of common sense, a trait that today’s Liberal lacks completely. So, you stay proud of being a Lib. It’s a road to nowhere but it’s your fantasy so be proud, Lib. LOL.
This is what I am talking about. The younger generations do want to heal this wound. We actually cannot have peace among one another until a big wrong has been made right as best we can.
I know what some are thinking, and no, I do not mean agreeing to nor am I promoting any particular solution. What I mean is we 100% must have representative conversations in good faith with the party wronged. Public, national discussions with terms that allow us all to let it go. Can you imagine being able to say you helped figure out a way to finally move the most powerful country in the world past its division caused by slavery?
I don’t disagree with you in principle Christopher but for 60 years the narratives of the liberals, the media, and the NAACP has been Black People Good, White People Bad. The Black community is never called out for their own transgressions against themselves and society at large. They murder each other by the thousands every year. Over fifty percent of violent crime is committed by them, 13% of the population and in general they commit crime out of all proportion to their percentage of the population as a whole. The percentage of the Black two parent household is below thirty percent now when it was near eighty percent in the years leading up to the Great Society handouts. Those things are just for starters. They are real and they are pervasive.
The problem is that there has been no conversation in good faith. The Black community is never called on to do better and until it is things will never change. Until there is real accountability from the Black community the atrocities that they inflict on one another will continue. I’m not just saying that. Real live Black people have said that to me many times over the years. Yes they were wronged. No doubt about it. But to continue to wallow in self-pity into perpetuity means that things will never change nor will they improve. The White community has done better and will continue to do so. The Black community must do the same. When the Black community decides that enough is enough, and there are signs that it is beginning to wake up to its own reality, then things will finally change for the better and begin to move forward. Unfortunately I see no inclination from them to do so and so we will continue to lurch along with no end in sight. This is the way to move the most powerful country in the world past the divisions caused by slavery. The real inconvenient truth is that there are too many leaders in the Black community, clergy included, who benefit from the status quo and until they are gone and real leadership takes over things will never change. Blaming all of the Black community’s problems on White people is all so very convenient and pleasurable but it won’t change a thing until the Black community takes responsibility for itself and the things it does to itself. They know what those things are too, they just choose to ignore them, for obvious reasons.
Let me ask you a question, a question for a white people who have family (like myself, family has been here since 1670) who came over pre or at colonial times.
If your Great Great Great Grandparents were brought here against their will, separated upon arrival, forced into slavery not knowing the language and lived that way for generations up to your Great Grandfather, freed and literally left with no education, no home, no income, no family and iliterate, what kind of life do you think most people like you, less than 150 years later, would have?
I am a white guy, Southern, born and raised in Georgia. I left Savannah when I was 16 to go to college in NYC. When I left the South, I was exposed to Black people who were highly educated, in positions of authority and who came from poor families originally from here. I began to realize that something available in the North allowed for Black people to lift themselves up that has not been the case in the South. It was not charity or lack of discrimination (which exists there too). It was opportunity.
It is unrealistic to think the trauma of slavery would simply go away with emancipation after only 150 years. We did not follow through with the “40 acres and a mule” rule, so Black people went from slavery to homeless, alone and only agrigarian knowledge. Most couldn’t even read. It wasn’t that long ago. Of course there are issues among the Black community. There has been no generational wealth here for them to depend on.
So now I am back in Atlanta. I do see in this city a Black community full of middle and upper middle class people. Here there are Black people in the 1%. They have created universities and colleges here with entire industries of Black people. That is not the case in Savannah, Birmingham or most other Southern states. Without a helping hand, it will take generations for the rest of the country to see the “lift yourself up” play out. In the meantime, Black people, rural White people, immigrants are suffering. What should we do? Continue to pretend we don’t have any respinsibility? Should we just keep watching them struggle? Do we want our children to grow up in our world, where resentment and bigotry fight it out with no resolution? What we have been doing is not fixing anything.
The biggest thing holding back White people of today fro truly reaching out to Black people is, I think, some White people feel to do so would mean accepting personal blame for slavery. I’m not suggesting any White person living today should be held personally responsible. God will and has taken care of those deserve personal blame and those who owned slaves.
Sometimes we are responsible for cleaning up messes made by others to help our own lives. Wouldn’t it be good for everyone if we found a way to help heal humanity?
Sorry, I keep thinking of pertinent information and feel it important to disclose.
I am a moderate. I don’t believe excessive handouts help lift people up. It’s clear, however well intended, welfare can actually disable those physically and mentally able to work. I am not suggesting trying to throw more money at this. I am suggesting a united effort by representative White people to sit down with representative Black people by choice to first show that we, as White people, want to do something about the horrors of slavery as it pertains to today’s Black community. It would show a kindness and a want to stop the racial problems still with us. And instead of telling them to get over it and just enabling poverty with a monthly check, we can talk about things that actually do lift people up….like maybe free college or free trade schooling. We can surely find something amongst these public discussions that we can all agree to and actually support enthusiastically. BTW, this goes for rural poor Whites too. The state of rural America today is abhorrent. I have family in rural Georgia that have to drive hours if they need a hospital.
You know, America is a wonderful place…I’ve done my share of traveling to places that show just how good we have it, even if some people complain about our country today. I promise if you drive just into the hills of Kentucky, you will be glad when you get back to wherever you are from. But the issues at the forefront in the 90’s are the same ones today. The solutions are not a mystery to many of them. I don’t know about you, but I think we can make this country idyllic again by doing more than talking, praying and hoping. Hope is not a plan.
Well Christopher, my first response to your question is, why are you still basing your arguments on the assumption that most black people, particularly those in the South, are in the same socio-economic predicament that they were in when they were emancipated in 1865 and first walked away from the plantation? Are you really going to try and tell me that Blacks only have opportunity in the North? Are you really going to try and tell me that Blacks in the South are still oppressed in cities like Savannah and Birmingham with educational and economic opportunities withheld from them? That is absurd, Christopher. I would say that you know it too but obviously you do not.
There is no question that slavery was, and is, an abomination. No question. Only a few fools would deny that it was, and is. Slavery still exists in Africa, only it’s not from white slaveowners. Are you aware of that? Are you also aware that if not for African tribes selling their conquered fellow Africans to the Dutch slave traders slavery in the Americas would have had a much more difficult time gaining traction? Are you aware that Black slaveowners existed in America? Not many, to be fair, but they did exist, Christopher. Liberals, the media, and the NAACP don’t want you to know that. I know why. It would serve you well to find out why too.
You say that what we have been doing is not fixing anything. You are partly right about that. I outlined several of the reasons why in my earlier post but you either did not read them or chose to ignore them because it clashes with your agenda. I mentioned the Great Society handouts, Christopher. Ever heard of them? Anywhere from 20 to 50 TRILLION dollars has been doled out to the Black community since 1965, Christopher, and it continues even to this day through welfare and DEI programs. That’s a lot of money. Would you not characterize that money as a helping hand? That was Lyndon Johnson’s intent when he first implemented those programs and we have almost nothing to show for it from the Black community. Even with all of that money and the generational dumbing down of school curriculums, something that I know all too much about, the Black community has still regressed. The two parent household has diminished from almost 80% in 1965 to less than 30% today. Crime in the Black community is rampant and continues to worsen. Would you say, and probably you would, that it is entirely due to institutionalized racism? For someone who believes that Blacks are only marginally better off than when they left the plantation that is the usual standard Liberal argument. But it goes much deeper than that, Christopher, and is much more complicated than it appears to the eye of the average Liberal.
You ask what should we do to solve this problem. You seem to say that we have abandoned our responsibility to them and that their continued struggles are directly a result of our indifference to them, both suppositions absurdities but widely accepted by the guilty White liberal community and of course the leaders of the Black community such as the enablers of the NAACP. This may come as a shock to you Christopher but one of the main reasons why the Black community has not progressed further in spite of all the assistance given to it since 1965 is the blatant refusal of the guilty White liberal community to demand that the Black community take responsibility for its own actions. Blacks are the sacred cows of the guilty White liberal and to even suggest that the Black community implement some kind of behavior modification for their own good is considered heresy of the highest order. It has been like giving over the management of your own household to your children. The results are predictable just as they have been for sixty years now. You say what we have been doing is not fixing anything. I say to you that what they have been doing, or not doing, is not fixing anything, especially for themselves. To continue to insist that it is only us who must do the fixing, that it is only us who must do the changing, and that it is only us who must do better is beyond offensive to me and to many others including members of the Black community who know full well what is going on here but hesitate to speak out for fear of being trashed as Uncle Toms.
You know, for many years I felt just as you do now. Poor black people, so downtrodden, so neglected, so oppressed, so forgotten. We must help them. And we did just that, for decades, and continue to do so as I have mentioned. As time passed I took off the rose tinted Liberal glasses and replaced them with the spectacles of common sense and reality. You are a Liberal, Christopher. You are still wearing those rose tinted Liberal glasses and as long as you keep wearing them you will not be of any help or service to the downtrodden that you profess to care about. Like every good Liberal out there you believe that just throwing money at the situation will solve the problem but how long do we continue to do that, Christopher? We have been doing it for sixty years now. How much longer? A hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand? Forever? How long, Christopher, how long? Until you say so? Until they say so? It doesn’t work, Christopher. Never has and never will. Every child must assume responsibility for itself at some point as it grows up. That includes groups, communities, cities, states and nations. Without responsibility nothing works, nothing changes, and nothing gets done. We have allowed an entire community to get away with ignoring their own responsibility to themselves and to their nation for decades now even as they have been allowed to blame all other groups for their dysfunction. Change that mindset and we will have progress in our relationships with each other, Christopher. To continue on as we have been doing will produce the inevitable conflicts. I am telling you the truth, Christopher. It’s tough but it’s real and it’s the truth.
It certainly was not idyllic for me. I lived in Avondale, walked several miles to elementary school because I couldn’t go to the one at the end of my block. Guess what color my skin is? It is interesting to read how the lighter colored persons lived.
I don’t find any pleasure in hearing that. For whatever it is worth, mine wasn’t an episode of The Andy Griffith show either, however I did have the advantage of being a blond haired, blue eyed white boy.
I don’t think we should think about solutions to our reality today as some sort of redemption for past wrongs or needed actions from guilt. I think the same things that have divided us, can bring us together. It’s ok to let yesterday be yesterday…for the time being. What is more important is to help people in our own country because we really do want a better tomorrow for those that follow. Get to know people not like you. Do what I did…move into an area where most of the people are Black. You will learn that people that live in those neighborhoods ALSO do not want to live with the crime and the drugs.
We have to do something different. The way things are going is not working for us. As long as there is a large amount of people in our own country who are hurting badly, it will be hard for those with means to live an idyllic life. If we can’t do it because it’s the Christian thing to do, then do it for the peace that it will bring.
There’s a reason I left Georgia at 16. Luckily I had the brains to get into early enrollment. I don’t want to go into details, but let’s just say college saved my life.
There is a lot of suffering we can’t see. We see it in the mass shootings and we see it in drug abuse. I was one of the lucky ones.
I too entered college at 16, Christopher. I too have lived in mixed neighborhoods of black and white for a very long time. Your suggestion is one of extreme self-righteousness as you assume that most white people remain unenlightened to the plights of those around them. Except you, of course. I am doing my best not to judge or attack you but you insist on not seeing the full picture here and until you do your confliction will not go away.
Christopher, we already have free college programs. We already have free trade school programs. And, as I said earlier, why is it always White people that should sit down with representatives from the Black community? Shouldn’t representatives from the Black community want to sit down with us and have real discussions with us, something they won’t do, by the way? You are just confirming what I have already written. You see yourself as a do-good warrior. They see you as a sap to be taken advantage of and if you continue to insist on seeing them as blameless then you will continue to be manipulated forever.
I take your words as talking down to me. Quite frankly, your generation’s inaction precedes your words. So I will get closer to the point.
Your generation has failed those of us who followed by not dealing with this in an enlightened way. I want what is best for my kids and their kids. Your way has not worked. Have a seat. We got it from here.
Nice to see nothing changes just one state away.
I most certainly was not talking down to you but I am very happy that I have finally pulled you down from the ivory tower that I strongly suspected that you live in. My way? What the hell does that mean? My way is good everyone. It’s called common sense and reason, something New Pharisees like you cannot comprehend. Your way is one of continuing destruction and ignorance. You don’t tell me to have a seat either, pal, and your arrogant condescension tells me what I already suspected, that you are a fake and a fraud with your so-called one sided Christian principles as you virtue signal your way through life hoping that the other side will pat you on the head and tell you what a good boy you are. By the way, I’m in Atlanta too so that typically snarky Liberal last comment of yours means nothing to me. Too bad. I was hoping that there was some promise for you and that you weren’t just the typical insufferable know it all Liberal that I am so accustomed to dealing with. I won’t make the same mistake again. You’re all alike and you are all full of it. At this point I am extremely disappointed that I wasted time trying to talk some sense into you. I should have known better and next time I will. Caveat emptor, Lib.
I never claimed to have the answers. You take my approach to a problem as if I think I am “better” than you.
You know what?
I think trying to do something to actually make a difference so others will benefit and the country can heal division is not optional. The way you all dealt with it did not work. Period. And maybe sitting down and asking THEM what they need and coming to a compromise can ONLY DO GOOD. It would put an official period on the responsibility so we can all in good and CLEAN conscience move on.
I am sorry that it was not idyllic for you. I really am, whether you believe that or not. So, where do we go from here, in your opinion?
As a AA kid that grew up in East Birmingham on Escambia St. in the lil government projects we had a lot of fun memories I was born in 59 an we were a neighbor hood it flooded alot an people would come help you out of the flood I can remember sitting on the lil prouch listening to WENN radio which was a AA station thinking how special Birmingham must be to have all these bands singing at the station
my Parents moved in 67 to Acipco brought a house went to Egan school an for most part we were immune to the reality of Birmingham to AA at that some but mostly we just had fun
I know exactly where you grew up, Will. The projects were right across the alley where I grew up on 68th St. North. I am glad that you and your friends had a lot of fun memories too. I know that things were not ideal back then for the AA community and I along with many others regret that but things were not all bad for you either in spite of what a commenter above attempted to imply. By the way, it flooded a lot in my neighborhood too every time there was a heavy rain. Lousy sewer systems there. Anyway, thank you for your comment. I hope that you are doing well.
Thank you for that wonderful stroll down memory lane. I grew up in Mt Brook just outside of Crestline Village (1948-1965) and have often wished to be transported back in time to that simple time. A time of turmoil as well? Of course. But also some of the happiest and fondest memories of my life.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I hope that you will not allow anyone on this thread to guilt you for it either. They will, you know.
They can try.
For one thing to be true, the other does not need to be false.
This is such a “I got mine. To H with everybody else.” mentality.
Clearly that has not worked, nor is it admirable.
That is not what he said at all. He acknowledged that things weren’t as good for others in their childhoods as his and he in no way was rubbing anyone’s face in anything. And who the hell are you to be in judgement of him or anyone else for that matter but that’s just who you are and what you do. Thanks for revealing yourself as the angry self-righteous troll that you are. Here is your motto: “Oh, if every White person could just be as wonderful as I am then this world would be perfect. ” Yeah, whatever.
THAT attitude is why NOBODY is scrambling to move to Birmingham. THAT self righteous “I refuse to acknowledge or do anything about past wrongs” mentality is why Birmingham looks exactly the same as it did when I was a child in the 90s. I
I enjoy conversation. I appreciate different ideas and possibilities. That’s why I occassionally check out this blog. Birmingham’s reputation across this country is anchored to the past. And DOING NOTHING BUT FIGHTING DIFFERENT IDEAS TO MOVE FORWARD is what is going to keep you exactly where you are today.
For all the other White people in Alabama who read this. People like John Scott will try to humiliate you for standing up. Instead, let him remind you why you stand up. Let him reflect the past that has brought us here. There is NOTHING WRONG with wanting a better world (not a gated community mentality) for your children. NOTHING.
“THAT attitude is why NOBODY is scrambling to move to Birmingham. THAT self righteous “I refuse to acknowledge or do anything about past wrongs” mentality is why Birmingham looks exactly the same as it did when I was a child in the 90s. ” – Christopher the Clueless Lib from Atlanta
Nothing gets through that thick as a brick brain of yours, does it Christopher? Tell me where in this blog is anyone refusing to acknowledge Birmingham’s past wrongs? Go ahead. Tell me. You can’t because it doesn’t exist. You don’t know a damned thing about Birmingham before the 90’s yet in typical arrogant Liberal fashion you proclaim that you do and that everyone must accept what you say. Many times on this blog I have referenced the wrongs and the hardships that Blacks suffered in Birmingham before 1965 and how much I regretted that it happened yet you are trying to lie to everyone here by telling the White People of Alabama ( What an arrogant little putz you are) not to listen to me because I am the symbol of the repressive past. Typical Liberal. Tell half the story and then lie about the rest. Your insufferable ignorance is astounding yet you continue to blather on because you are convinced of your own self-righteous omniscience. Get out of here.
I’m not going to argue further with you. I don’t owe you anything either. Change is here. Adapt or…don’t.
Hey Christopher. Sitting down with them and asking them what they need? Do you think that’s never been done before? Where the hell have you been, anyway? Do you believe that the world only began when you were born? Do you really think that no one paid attention to them until you came along? Absurdly ridiculous. I suggest that you call it a night and come back when you’re able to play with the big boys ’cause right now you haven’t even gotten out of the sandbox yet.
There was 1 more TV celebrity we would encounter on Sundays at Britlings on Highland Ave. Country Boy Eddie seemed to be there most weeks when my extended family would meet there for lunch. He always had a pocket full of suckers to hand out to the children who would gather around. His home on Shades Crest had a little cowboy doll in the front window and a buckboard wagon in the front yard.
I think it’s unfair to expect that every time a white person shares their memories of an “idyllic” youth in Birmingham’s predominantly white suburbs, they must in the same breath acknowledge the unjust and deplorable segregation suffered by the vast majority of Black persons. I won’t pretend to speak for David Sher. This is his blog, and I’m sure you can find comments or entire columns by him that focus on historical and contemporary race relations in the area. He and his blog strike me as problem solvers. After all, one subtext of his push for greater regional cooperation is a recognition that it must include cooperation among predominantly white and predominantly Black communities, businesses, organizations, and political leaders. Meanwhile I’m confident that historians—and writers such as the ones Terry Barr wrote about—will keep the full story in front of us, notwithstanding the efforts of some to bury it.
I grew up in Tuscaloosa, not Birmingham. So I was going to comment on my memories of our passing through or around the city when we visited family in Bluff Park or in east Alabama. That also was in the 1950s & 1960s, before Interstate 20-59 was finished. George Wallace didn’t carry Jefferson County and refused to expedite interstate highway construction in the county. I was going to ask those of you who grew up in Birmingham to comment on what happened to the businesses and families along the Bessemer Superhighway, when the Interstate was finally completed. Didn’t it split neighborhoods and take travelers like us away from the businesses all along Bessemer Superhighway, many of which were probably minority owned? You might even offer your thoughts on the missed opportunity, when ALDOT didn’t bury I20-59 in its Malfunction Junction fix a few years ago and restore North Birmingham’s natural geographical connection to downtown.
I think the role of highways in exacerbating urban problems, including Birmingham’s, is a worthwhile topic for discussion. But instead I’d like to share a few details about my wife’s family history. Remember that not all white families fled the city over the mountain or to other parts of the region following desegregation. My wife’s family was one. Her great-grandmother and namesake was born on the family plantation in northeast Louisiana, where they owned more than 100 enslaved persons at the time. But she chose to attend college in antislavery Cincinnati in the 1850s. She moved with her Confederate veteran physician husband (who purportedly became a pacifist after the war) to the new city of Birmingham in the 1880s. He was recruited by TCI to serve as a company doctor, and he treated black and white workers alike. Perhaps even convict lease prisoners working in the mines and mills. The family eventually settled in Forest Park and Highland Park, where they stayed put while other families decamped to the suburbs.
Her older sister was especially active in improving race relations as a teenager and college student in the late 1960s. She helped to desegregate their church, established relationships with Black students, and served as director of the first integrated neighborhood youth program in Birmingham. Local Klan members repeatedly moved her VW Bug by hand from its parking place at the youth program office in Norwood. As she wrote in her diary, “I was threatened with bodily harm but when I reported it to the police I was told ‘Honey (it was always honey or sugar) there’s a file on you in the mayor’s office as thick as my arm. No one’s going to believe you.’” Neither the Klan nor the cops liked what she was up to. But her experience, and the entire trajectory of my wife’s family history, suggests that no one’s personal history, much less entire communities and ethnic groups, can be pigeonholed and stereotyped.
There’s been a good bit of discussion about race with this column. Here are links to two columns that might add additional insight. https://comebacktown.com/2023/12/06/white-folks-no-need-for-shame-when-shielded-from-truth-as-kids/ and https://comebacktown.com/2023/03/28/my-childhood-memories-of-birmingham-may-be-different-than-yours/
Thank you for resending these columns by Mr. Townsend and Ms. Wilson, David. They are well written, informative, and both of them tell their stories of growing up Black in Birmingham in the fifties and sixties with needed candor but without malice. I grew up White in Birmingham at the same time they did. I deeply regret that they did not have access to the same things that I had access to even as a lower middle class White child in a lower middle class neighborhood. I regret, but I will not be made to feel guilt about what I had no control over and did not create as still far too many people on both sides demand that I should. I will not wear that hair shirt. Never have and never will. For decades I have done what I can to never allow what happened then to be recreated around me. I was taught to respect those around me regardless of skin color and I will continue to do that until my time is done. My great disappointment and even greater fear however is that we have lost the ability to not only reconcile with each other but to finally live in harmony and peace judging each other solely on the content of our character, as someone famously said a long time ago. From what I see today we were closer to that goal sixty years ago than we are now, for many unfortunate reasons both political and deliberate. If you are Black and you hate me because I am White simply because of what happened in the past then you do what you must do. If you are White and you hate me simply because I will not wear the mantle of guilt that you have chosen for yourselves and expect me to do as well then again you do what you must do. Neither of you will tell me what to do or what to be based on those criteria of judgments because both pathways are the pathways of futility and failure. You treat people like you would want to be treated yourself, regret the dark pasts with determination to never repeat them, and you keep moving. No guilt. Ever.
Of course you aren’t going to argue further with me, Christopher. You have nothing left to argue with as I have taken away all of your substance-less blatherings and replaced them with common sense truth. Your arrogant obstinance is fascinating to me though but then it is the arrogant obstinance of Liberals everywhere so it’s not like it’s a surprise to me at all.
Change is here? Adapt or don’t? Once again your grand opinion of yourself reveals you and not in a good way. Life is change, Christopher. It didn’t just begin when you were born and – newsflash to you – it just happens everyday and we all adapt to it as it happens. I don’t know what “change” you are talking about…I suspect that it has something to do with your Liberal grandiosity as far as race is concerned… but it really doesn’t matter. You are a Guilty White Liberal. Black is good. White is bad. You have the answer for all of it. That’s it, Christopher. You learned nothing these last few days and the sad thing is that you can’t because you only listen to your own little Liberal inner voice telling yourself how wonderful you are. Maybe one day you and Marc Howard can get together and tell each other about what a shame it is that everyone can’t be as wonderful as you.
I can’t change Alabama or neanderthal thinking. I point to your neighbor to the right.
Big change is coming and today it is at your doorstep. I am happy to have been a part of the work to bring it. You calling me names and trying to put me in a box reveals who you are, not me. You will NEVER shame me for wanting better for the world.
What change might that be, Christopher? And just what kind of work is it that you have been so happy to be a part of? Very intriguing there, Christopher. Are you one of those closet Liberal Marxists dedicated to the destruction of the America that YOU have decided is irredeemably evil and must be eliminated? Lots of them out there right now, Christopher. I’m thinking that you might be one of them.
YOU are the one who has put yourself in a box, Christopher. I have merely been pointing out what you are by the admission of your own words and any “name calling” that I have used has been accurate identification of what you are, again by your own admission. I know what you are Christopher and I know what makes you tick, far better than you can even understand it yourself. You don’t like that. I don’t care.
Shame you for wanting a better world? Most of us want a better world, Christopher, for as many of us as possible. Unfortunately your terminal narcissism misleads you to believe that you are unique in that respect and feeds your insufferable self-righteousness. If I have shamed you at all it is for your aggressive naivete’, Christopher. Your solutions are childish and dated yet you would have us believe that no one has ever thought of them before except you. When it comes to race relations certain members of the Black Community have been schooling and tooling Guilty White Liberals like you for decades. They mock you and laugh at your false earnestness. They know that you are just another dime a dozen virtue signaler but they also know that they can get whatever they want out of you. Again, unfortunately, what those certain members want is not what is good for America or even for the members of their own tribe, a subject that I have already covered, not that it made any difference to you obviously
So, big change is coming and it’s at my doorstep today? What might those changes be? Care to let us in on your little secret? You seem to be quite confident with your proclamation. Seems a little threatening too, not that I’m worried about that, Christopher. I and at least about a hundred million other Americans are well aware of the changes your side wants to force on us, changes that have nothing to do the liberty of being an American. We’ll be ready. Don’t think that we won’t. And, be careful what you wish for, Christopher. It’s an old saying but it’s still valid today more than ever because sometimes what you wish for can turn around and bite you severely. It’s good advice, Christopher. I suggest that you take it seriously if you can.
1. I am a moderate, however I will gladly stand against the Confederacy 2.0.
2. I suggest you take a look at what happened to Confederates after the war and then make a decision if that’s how you want to end up.
You do not scare me, nor do any tiki torch mama’s boys trying to keep the “others” down.
Do NOT think because I offer support to the oppressed that I can’t handle myself….Alabama. I am Georgia through and through. So…go ahead, jump. I dare you.
Yeah tough guy, you’re about as moderate as Joseph Stalin. Your hatred for Alabama and Birmingham in particular is palpable so what the hell are you even doing on this thread anyway. You grew up in Georgia and obviously learned how to be a Marxist Liberal in NYC so what’s your deal with this city and this state? You won’t answer the question. You haven’t answered any question that I have thrown at you during this little soiree so I don’t expect you to start now. Such a joke.
Confederacy 2.0? Charlottesville references? You really are a driven little Marxist, aren’t you? Your mission is to tell those who aren’t “oppressed” that they actually are “oppressed”, part of the current Marxist policy to divide and conquer. As I have indicated, I know what you are, Christopher. You pretend peace but you drive hatred. I have exposed you to everyone here on this thread. You respond by doing what every good little Liberal Progressive Marxist does today, defer and deflect while you marginalize your opposition with ridiculous accusations that you fling from your malevolent little sandbox as you hope that we will forget what you really are. Ain’t workin’, Christopher.
You offer support to the oppressed? What a crock. I offer support to the oppressed too, Christopher. I warn them against cretinous charlatans like you, and that is just what you are. You are a fake, you are a fraud, and you are a loser. Your tough guy posturing is beyond laughable and your puny “threats” are pathetic. And for the umpteenth time, I don’t live in Alabama any more, Christopher. I’m right here in the same city as you are. So, how tough do you want to be now? LOL.
Awe…somebody got his feelings hurt. 🙁 So sad… LOL Feels irrelevant and hates progress for anybody but his little white self.
Boy, the next few years are going to be rough for you and all the others like you.
I’ve been thinking about your ranting and the things you said. You are owed an answer as to why I come here.
I grew up in the South. I have businesses in the Atlanta metro. I employ a few around the country. I want to see this region reach its potential. I see potential in Birmingham and I had hopes that over the years a synergy would develop as Atlanta has with many other regional cities. I try to speak about a touchy subject not because I enjoy it. Do you really think anybody enjoys the nastiness that actually takes the time to lay out the suggestions or thoughts I did? I look for solutions to problems. That’s what I do in my businesses as well. It’s my role to pinpoint, assess and provide tenable solutions.
Maybe Birmingham will one day deal head on with its past. But burying your head in the sand and refusing to even entertain new ways of thinking is completely destructive, even if you look at it from a business perspective.
Either way, I am disappointed in myself that I allowed myself to be baited by you. The conversation has really taken a nasty turn and it’s not benefiting anybody reading this. I stand by my last statement. I would think through any violence you may be planning. But do your worst. Until then, you and I are done.
I truly wish you the best.
You should be disappointed in yourself. You have made assumptions that have no basis in reality from the way the world is to the accusations that you have made towards me and my character. Everything I have said is based on fact and truth. Everything that you have said is based on lies, hatred, animosity, and your own personal bias and racism. My “rantings” are well thought out observations. Everyone on this thread can see that as they can also see what you are as well even as you protest otherwise.
Birmingham has moved on from its past. It has a black mayor and most of its governing body is black. What else would you rather have? A Birmingham completely run by Blacks with only Black citizens? I strongly suspect that a Black racist like you is perfectly fine with such a vision. You say that you look for solutions to problems but you never lay out what those problems and solutions are. You are very cagey just like the good Black Marxist that you are. Lots of them still around. From the 1930’s on their goal has been to topple the United States of America and they/you are well on your way to the achievement of that objective.
Typical of the Marxist Progressive Liberal is that when they know that they have been outed, defeated, and debunked they always take the self-righteous high road, declare victory when they know they have lost, and then take their ball and run home. Your vicious labeling of me is nothing but vitriolic slander but it’s all you’ve got and you know it. I have said nothing that even hints of any planned violence but what I have said is that I know what you are your side are planning for us and that I and millions of other Americans will defend ourselves against you. It is YOU who is making the threats against me, promising that the next few years are going to be rough for me and all other like minded Americans whose only fault is that we will not allow you to turn America into a totalitarian hell which is exactly what you and your side are planning for us. But, just like the typical Liberal Progressive Marxist that you are you accuse the other side of doing what you yourselves are planning to do and will do. It’s a famous Communist tactic. You aren’t nearly as clever as you pretend to be.
One last thing and then I am done with you too. You called me “Boy” and referred to me as my “little white self”, both racist pejoratives that clearly reveal you to be the racist white hater that you really are. I don’t have to say anything further about you. You have revealed yourself quite nicely. What you are really pissed off about is that I ripped the mask off of your pretensions and exposed you for what you are for all to see. You hate that. You tried very hard to spin this narrative against me but you have failed and you have failed miserably. Now, run along and continue your pernicious destruction of the America that you despise. You may succeed. After all, you have an administration in place that is using you to achieve its goals of destroying America and a media that supports them. And please don’t hand me that “I wish you the best” stuff. You would have me eliminated if you could. You see, I know who the enemy is and it is you, the wolf in the sheep’s clothing and you hate truth tellers like me. We stand in your way and we will never give in to you. Pass that on to your comrades too.
I wrote this article to reminisce about my childhood. Many of the comments relate to political issues and race. This is not the objective of ComebackTown. I apologize for not doing a better job of moderating. In the future I will block comments and commenters. Thank you for following ComebackTown. We all want a better Birmingham.