Come on over to the Book Setting!
God Be With Our Black Neighbors
I've been a fan of Nadine Keels for many years. I follow her on Amazon and had picked up books when they send a notice they've been published. So I had read one and discovered it was a trilogy. I then read another I already had, and finally went out and got this first book that I'd missed... After reading I knew I wanted to spotlight this trilogy, for so many reasons...
First, it is set soon after the end of WWII--I was born about that time, LOL... My mother had made it clear to me, when I asked, that I was an America. Even then she disassociated herself from Hitler and his war against the Jewish people. And, I wanted to learn more about that era just as Nadine had done to add a historical perspective to these books...
And its music, of course.
Nadine provides a short historical perspective for each of these books, varying. In this case, she talked about what was called "race music." Yes, there has always been discrimination, hasn't there? (As far back as Jesus Himself...) The local radio stations at that time refused to play what, essentially, was the Blues.
That was the decision by which the Malt Shop owner installed a jukebox... The Malt Shop became the central setting as the book progresses... And it was normally packed, especially by teenagers, who would come in, go immediately to the jukebox and put in some coins!
Vicky was known as The Brain of her school, something which she didn't really enjoy, but the kids did tend to give nicknames, and Vicky was one of the smartest students in the school. She was also interested in writing, already planning for a career in Journalism, hopefully at her local newspaper so that she wouldn't have to leave town...
But Vicky was really a young girl who had not yet found her way... Even though she was 16, she had never dated anyone, even though one of her best friends already had a steady boyfriend (you'll meet her later). But then there was a day--a very special day... And there was a boy, a special little boy she had once played with when her parents had come together. They would go outside to play and leave the grownups to do what they did, and they'd run, run, run everywhere, having fun, as children do...
But, this day, she was alone at the Malt Shop and ready to place her order, when the son of the Shop's owner...well, let's just say, there was an incident. A very special incident for Vicky and, it seemed, for...him...
More and more Vicky remembered the incident. An incident that she had never shared with her best friends... It was too precious...
And with that she could keep it close to her heart secretly, at least she could keep the secret until he had made and given her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... She had to share!
Willie, the teenaged son of the owner of Bro Brown's Malt Shop, had been talking with friends when he turned around--and the incident occurred... Yes, he was the little boy with whom she'd run through the house and yard as a child... Now he was the most important football player on the team and their lives, for the most part had gone separate ways until that day... She hadn't been looking for a beau, but, still...
Willie had held Vicky that day, to save her from falling. But they held in that position much longer than needed. And, their eyes had held, neither wanted to move... She wasn't sure what to do. He certainly didn't... Willie, we can plainly see, is really somewhat shy. There is no indication whether he'd had a crush on Vicky when they were much younger, but their time at that time, obviously had stayed with each one as time had gone by...
And when Willie's Dad suggested he have a small group of friends in, Willie agreed--he wanted only to have Vicky come! So he suggested she invite her friends too... And Vicky did come, but was quiet and sat watching others dancing. When Willie came and asked, worriedly about her, she finally admitted for the first time that she didn't know how to dance...
No comments:
Post a Comment