"Strangers"
By Joseph Ridgway
I was 12 years old and heading home from football practice with my father in his station wagon. It was 1960, and the name of his business was printed on his car door: “STEIN-RIDGWAY HOMEBUILDERS, INC.” A driver signaled to my father from the adjacent lane, and both of them slowed and pulled over. The other driver, a Black man, got out and walked back to our car. He asked my father if he owned the home-building company, and my father said that he did. They spoke for a few minutes, and then the man got back in his car and followed us to a housing development my father’s company was building.
When we arrived, my father got out of his car and talked to the man. I remember them laughing together. They shook hands, and my father showed him a model home. About ten minutes later my father returned to our car chuckling to himself.
I asked what was so funny and he said that the man, had been surprised when my father had actually led him to the housing development; he’d expected my father would drive a hundred miles per hour to lose him.
I told my father I didn’t understand. “Was it because he was a stranger?” “No son,” my father said. “He is no stranger. He’s just a man looking for a good neighborhood to live in and raise his children.”
When we arrived, my father got out of his car and talked to the man. I remember them laughing together. They shook hands, and my father showed him a model home. About ten minutes later my father returned to our car chuckling to himself.
I asked what was so funny and he said that the man, had been surprised when my father had actually led him to the housing development; he’d expected my father would drive a hundred miles per hour to lose him.
I told my father I didn’t understand. “Was it because he was a stranger?” “No son,” my father said. “He is no stranger. He’s just a man looking for a good neighborhood to live in and raise his children.”
Author’s Note:
My favorite magazine, “The Sun,” includes a monthly feature titled “READERS WRITE,” which asks its readers to address a variety of different monthly topics with the requirement for publication that the submission be nonfiction. The magazine gives broad room for expression and the readers’ submissions are fascinating in their diversity of interpretation as well as presenting valuable slices of life which may otherwise be left unshared. My above submission, as edited by the magazine for space limitations, was published in the magazine’s September, 2020. (Issue #537)
under the topic: “STRANGERS.”
My favorite magazine, “The Sun,” includes a monthly feature titled “READERS WRITE,” which asks its readers to address a variety of different monthly topics with the requirement for publication that the submission be nonfiction. The magazine gives broad room for expression and the readers’ submissions are fascinating in their diversity of interpretation as well as presenting valuable slices of life which may otherwise be left unshared. My above submission, as edited by the magazine for space limitations, was published in the magazine’s September, 2020. (Issue #537)
under the topic: “STRANGERS.”