We've Come a Long Way Baby!

In 1968 a young VT girl at the ripe old age of 22 moved to Hartford CT and took up employment at Arthur's Drugstore on Farmington Avenue. There she met a young single gal of the same age, the mother of a 2 year old little girl.

The young lady, named Angie, became the Vermonter's closest friend. They worked together, shopped together, went to Dr. and Dentist appointments together, had lunches, went to movies, and told each other their innermost secrets. Life was good.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated it brought great sadness to both of these young ladies. How could this be happening? What is wrong with these people they thought. We are all God's children.

One of the repercussions from MLKs tragic death was the hate, anger, and resentment of blacks towards whites, the anger that MLK was gone, the leader of their dream. This was further evidenced by the two young girls as they tried to carry on with normal activities in spite of the rioters that filled the streets of this populous city from time to time in the days following. There were people everywhere in the streets some days. Sometimes almost crushing crowds would carry them along, past the store they wanted to get to, or past the car they had parked safely hours before. "It isn't safe", the news people said to be on the streets. The girls were so young and naive. They thought " Why would anyone want to hurt us? We've done nothing." They were best friends after all.

The girls came out of work one day to find the windshield of the Vermonter's car smashed by a rock. The rock had a paper wrapped around it and the paper was held by a rubber band. The paper had two words on it.

A couple of days later the girls went to get the windshield fixed and went back downtown for a dentist appointment that the Vermonter felt she had to keep because it had taken 2 months to get it in the first place. While sitting upstairs in the dentist chair in front of a huge glass window overlooking the main street, a rock came flying through. The rock was wrapped in a yellow lined piece of paper. On the paper was written 2 words.

The next evening things had quieted down a bit more and the girls decided it was safe to go to the theater as they had previously planned. The movie was great, the popcorn was even better and they laughed and cried through the movie as young girls often do.

They were walking home after the show, around 10:00PM, almost to Angie's house, enjoying the beautiful night air. Still talking about the tragedy that had happened to MLK and how happy they were that things had calmed down so much, getting back to normal. Life was good.

Just as Angie reached for the gate to her walkway, two men, smelling and sounding disgustingly drunk, jumped out, grabbed the girls, yelled racial slurs and commenced to beat the girls mercilessly. This went on for what seemed like an hour but really was probably a matter of minutes. No matter how the girls fought back, weighing less than 100 lbs. each, they were no match for the two drunken enraged men.

One of the neighbors heard the girl's screams and called the police. When the police got there the 2 men took off running...they were never found. Angie lay on the ground moaning and crying, her face covered in blood, her breathing shallow. The Vermonter lay about 5 feet away, she too, covered in blood, crying, trying to catch her breath and get her bearings. The ambulance came, took them to the hospital and the girls were admitted and treated. Angie had a broken nose, three broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. The Vermonter was luckier, she had a slight concussion, a broken jaw and a sprained wrist.

Both girls were in the hospital a little over a week. Angie's ribs healed slowly, her heart even slower. The Vermonter's jaw was wired shut for 6 weeks and both girls were out of work for over a month. They kept each other company, wrote notes, watched tv, read books and cried together and comforted each other. they were still best friends. In fact they remained best friends until Angie moved away and the two lost track of each other.

Today, as I watch with great emotion, the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America, I think back to how far we have come. Yes their is still racism, hate and bigotry. Yes there are still riots and wars. Old wounds have healed, new days have come and today is one of the greatest days in American History.

Angie, I wonder if somewhere Angie is watching this great event today. I wonder if she thinks back to those days of trials and tribulations of our youth, how naive we were. I wonder if she remembers how determined we were to not let what was going on in Hartford hurt us. I wonder if she remembers our vow to never let the color of someones skin make us turn our back on them. Yes I wonder.

The words on the papers wrapped around the rocks?
'NIGGER LOVER".

It never stopped me or Angie of course.. even though I was white and she was black. (We were best friends you know.)