Page 138 - From the Outhouse 4 -21

F R O M T H E O U T H O U S E T O T H E L I T T L E R E D S C H O O L H O U S E : | 138

Academically, my freshman year was awful! My grades were so bad that I had to attend summer school at another college because
Talladega didn’t offer summer courses. Fortunately, Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, was an institution whose

Summer School grades were accepted by Talladega. Another good thing was that my close friend was from Columbia. Summer school

was wonderful that first year – great classes, good grades, and even a little summer job for me to have extra spending money.

My friend Vivian invited me to spend a weekend at her home. That invitation triggered a roller coaster ride! The rule at Benedict was

that summer school students could not spend weekends off campus. That rule didn’t sit too well with my friend, and she arranged an
appointment with the Dean to say that she was not going to obey that rule. Vivian also insisted that I was to be given permission to

stay at her home. After all, it was her birthday weekend! She went around and around with the Dean until she finally realized the Dean

wasn’t going to change her position. That’s when Vivian “pulled a rabbit out of the hat.” She said, “My uncle is on your Trustee
Board. If you don’t give my friend permission, I’ll tell him, and he won’t make another contribution to this school.” Well, needless to

say, I got permission to spend the weekend with Vivian. What clout my friend had!

I started my second year of Summer School at Benedict, but this go-round wasn’t as successful as the first. It was eventful, but

sorrowful! Well, here’s the story. The Sunday before I was to depart to Columbia, South Carolina for college courses, I attended the
morning service at my home church, St. Paul Baptist. My mom was the Church Clerk and “Queen” of the church announcements. I

say that because she read the announcements very dramatically, speaking extremely well and adding inflections in all the right places.

That’s why I’ve always been emphatic about my performers speaking phonetically correct and using the appropriate volume. This
approach proved very successful because for five consecutive years, my students at Tajiri Arts won first place in local, district, state,

and national oratorical competitions in which the students represented such Sanford organizations as The Kiwanis Club, The Elks
Club, The Optimist Club, and the American Legion.

After I finished singing in the Youth Choir that Sunday morning, my mom made the church announcements. She asked me to stand
to let the congregation know that I was planning to attend Summer School, and I wanted them to pray for my success. I stood and