A little local history for MLK day

Yesterday, I took the youth to a program at Ashbury Temple UMC to hear some people speak about Durham's place in the Civil Rights struggle, and it was really informative. A teenage girl from Hillside highschool was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus in the 1940s, years before Rosa Parks' famous sit-in. And a group of teenagers from Ashbury itself (one of whom was one of the speakers) were arrested for sitting in the white section of Royal Ice Cream parlor 3 years before the Woolworth sit-in in Greensboro, which usually makes it to the history textbooks.
Also, I learned that Durham was known as the Black Wall Street starting in the late 1800s because of a large number of black owned banks, and because of over 120 black owned, not fronted and secretly owned by whites as in Harlem, Atlanta and other large cities, businesses, it was put up as an example by early civil rights leaders like Booker T. Washington. Unfortunately, all this progress was destroyed when the city built the freeway right through this thriving business area, and the promised shopping centers were never built. It is a shame that such exemplary progress was lost for the sake of easier transportation, and that I never learned any of this in my years of North Carolina history in school.

Christmas Recap

Yay! Sisters with new aprons!

Traditional Christmas Eve at Ichiban!

Here's installment 1 of way overdue festivities


old friends!

Dad? not blinking?

My bro & sis being silly

Proud sisters with our choirboy!

On the 3rd day of christmas my true love gave to me:

It had a bow and tag and everything! Isn't it beautiful? Cleared of old food, cleaned out and organized! See that ketchup? It's next to mustard and pickles, since you almost always need those together! Such a sweetie!

Is "recessionista" a word?

Who says we have to cut back on luxuries in these hard times? Today I had a steam facial while I set the iron on "Self Clean". And, when water dripped out on the floor, I grabbed a rag and presto! Clean floors! I'm like the Martha Stewart of the new economy.

Happy New Year!

Well, 2008 ended wonderfully, with a clean fridge (more on that later..) and a yummy late night meal from our new cookbook. And 2009 started with a bad cold and 2 flat tires! But the second day of the new year has been better, with some major bargain shopping and good times together. Soon to come: Christmas pictures!