Jacksonville Reflections - childhood neighborhood(#0317)

Though it may not look like it, this was an early site for learning about social class and stereotypes. This was on an odd street of individually built small homes that was not developed when the other streets around it were -- this particular spot was only about a 5 minute walk from my house.

The house that was here, now gone, was a small and simple wooden shack, a little rougher in appearance than other houses in the greater neighborhood. Who lived here was my best friend from around the 4th grade up to about the 10th grade. Sam (placeholder name, not actual) and I hit it off very well and did a lot of growing up together – traipsing around town, through the parks, swimming in the creeks and at neighbor’s pools. His family were ‘farm folk’ who still had connections to tobacco farms in South Carolina, his mother was very accepting of me, her various overnight boyfriends were usually kind, and we made a couple of week-long trips in their older Mercury (considered to be a ‘farmers’ car) up to the farm.

The lesson about class in this situation came mostly from my mother – she didn’t want me associating with those ‘white trash farm people’ (who weren’t that different from us). Mother lost that battle, though, since Sam shared with me ‘outsider’ status at school and he was my only friend.

(Part of a photo-essay series on personal history and race with keyword FlaAla0518)