'That's exactly how I feel,' my mother said, and then my parents watched the news, and whatever came on after the news. I don't know that I believe in it, either.' Tomkey did not believe in television, my father said, 'Well, good for him. It also suggested that you thought too much. Belief implied that television had a master plan and that you were against it. To say that you did not believe in television was different from saying that you did not care for it. Tomkey,' the friend likely would have agreed as well.

Had my mother said, 'That's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life,' I assume that the friend would have agreed, and had she said, 'Three cheers for Mr. The woman did not editorialize-rather, she just presented her information, leaving her listener to make of it what she might. This was told to us by our mother's friend, who dropped by one afternoon with a basketful of okra. Tomkey, who did not believe in television. The only place that seemed truly different was owned by a man named Mr. I hoped that in walking around after dark I might witness a murder, but for the most part our neighbors just sat in their living rooms, watching TV. But here, when you looked out the window, you saw other houses, and people inside those houses. It just wasn't the right time.īack in New York State, we had lived in the country, with no sidewalks or streetlights you could leave the house and still be alone. It was more of a 'see you later' situation, but still I adopted my mother's attitude, as it allowed me to pretend that not making friends was a conscious choice. Our next house was less than a mile away, and the short journey would hardly merit tears or even good-byes, for that matter. Within a year we would move again and, as she explained, there wasn't much point in getting too close to people we would have to say good-bye to. My mother made friends with one of the neighbors, but one seemed enough for her. When my family first moved to North Carolina, we lived in a rented house three blocks from the school where I would begin the third grade.

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