Reply #22: I lived outside Atlanta at the time (age 6-8 years when it was going on) [View All]

[alcibiades_mystery]

We lived in Cobb County, specifically Marietta.

I remember seeing all this on the news, and being afraid, and asking my Mom about it. My Mom, a transplanted New Yorker (we subsequently moved back to NYC) kinda smiled and said "You don't have anything to worry about, hon." I remember her words and the sardonic look on her face very well. "Why not?" I asked. "Whoever is doing this," she said, "Is killing black kids in the city, not white kids in the suburbs." As a seven year-old, this confused me mightily, but I think it may have been my introduction to race and power in American society. Then my Mom said "Are you still scared." Strangely, I wasn't. Then she said something I'll never forget: "Are you angry now? Because you should be."

As I understand the literature on memory, really shocking childhood events stand out in most explicit detail. I can see this entire scene unfold in my head like it was yesterday. I also remember the day Williams was convicted: they interrupted the programming in the Atlanta metro area. My Mom and Dad were on the couch, and my Mom said "What a crock." My father, a kind of sarcastic sonovabitch (love him, just saying), shook his head, and said "Welcome to Georgia."