Just Bragging: I was at the "I have a dream" speech

[ThomWV]

I was just a kid, 16 years old. My closest friend (now dead) and I went down town and were there when Dr. King gave his "I have a dream" speech. I have never seen a picture that caught us and we were so far back (3/4 of the way back the reflecting pool and to Dr. King's left side) but thanks to speakers it could be heard. Its not important but every now and then I get to blovate about it.

PS: Something about the speech nobody ever mentions. It was hot as hell that day - I mean so hot people were passing out.

[lamp_shade]

1. Feel free please to consider yourself very special.

Very special.
:hi:

[ThomWV]

3. Very lucky would be more like it

[Evergreen Emerald]

2. Wow! Tell me what you were feeling at the time you heard it.

Did you know then that it would be such a lasting historic event?

I cry everytime I hear that speech.

[ThomWV]

7. Not at all, not until the very end and then something stuck home

This would't make much sense to you or anyone else but it was a reference very near the end of the speech that just jolted me. It was when he refered to Stone Mountain, which is in Georgia. I knew of Stone Mountain, I had seen it, and I had heard hits of its filthy past. Anyway somehow, and I could not tell you how or why for the life of me, that was the phrase that just banged it home to me that the guy speaking and I were in the same boat. Like I said, I know it probably doesn't make much sense, but that was it.

[Evergreen Emerald]

11. it does make sense

Thank you for sharing. :)

[grannie4peace]

13. what is up with stone mountain?

i had never been to "the south" in those days. my so was from georgia

[ThomWV]

15. The old people said that was where the Klan came from

My people were from the Carolinas but we had been down there traveling and my Grandmother told me that was where the Klan came from. I don't know if she was right or not but I was old enough that I had seen the Klan and they scared the living shit out of me (real young kid and maybe I thought they were ghosts or something).

By the way, years later the last Klan suit I ever saw worn was in Silver Spring, Maryland. There were 4 of them in a Dodge convertible and they were driving south on Georgia Avenue heading into DC. I thought they were suicidal.

[grannie4peace]

17. wow!

one of the friends i made via jj is an artist( she's 20 years younger than me) whose ancestor is one of the guys that started the clan. she said it was started because of the carpetbaggers. i never liked american history so didn't know much about the south or the country.

[Kahuna]

4. I watched it on TV. I saw you!

:hi:

[panader0]

5. That's very cool.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. Wow!

That's impressive as hell! :applause:

[grannie4peace]

8. that is so cool.....

it was 2 days after my birthday. i was standing in the front room watching it as i ironed. i remember the goosebumps going up my legs as he spoke. i had just gotten back from wisconsin where i had told my mother that we had black blood in our family because she had said something racist. we must be about the same age. :hi: i bolvate that janis joplin picked me up hitchhiking :bounce: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[ThomWV]

9. My god! Remember the days when people actually hitch-hiked.

When my wife sees that you were picked up by Janis she will die with envy.

[grannie4peace]

12. it has made me some really cool friends :)

what was funny was she was singing under her breath. we didn't know who she was & my boyfriend said when we got out "boy, she sure can't sing".over the years when i thought back i realized how ironic that was!!!! this world is smaller than we think. :party: :fistbump:

[livvy]

16. Wow...one of my favs!

Lucky you...a safe ride and a concert to boot!

:hi: livvy (and a wave and a :hug: from my sis, too...I know she'd approve!)

[grannie4peace]

19. hi livvvy

:pals: :fistbump: :grouphug: it's a good day for america!!!!

[livvy]

20. Yes.It.Is!!!!

:fistbump:

[lonestarnot]

10. Lucky you as a kid!

Happy MLK day! :hug:

[Ocracoker16]

14. Thanks for sharing your memories

[livvy]

18. He spoke in my community when I was several years younger than you.

I remember the uproar it caused, and a lot of ugliness it brought out. In some ways it was good. That ugliness had been brewing under the surface, and it brought it out in the open.

I also remember some heated discussions at the dinner table. I learned some uncomfortable things about my mom, that I still do not understand. She was such a wonderful, loving, caring woman in every other way. For her to harbor the feelings that she did was very confusing to me as a kid. I remember feeling sad and mad, and disappointed.

I wasn't allowed to go to the speech, and I was too young to venture out on my own. Lucky you. What a wonderful life experience.

[progressoid]

21. Cool!

I have a friend who knows a guy that marched with him a couple times. That's as good as I can do for now.

I was five yrs old at the time. :)