Jewel Nies
St. Charles, MO
I grew up in SE MO, the Bootheel. 20 miles from Arkansas border. Very southern town. My neighborhood bordered a black neighborhood. I had a black friend that I had played with for years. When I was around 9 or 10 my Mother came to me and said the neighborhoods ladies club told her to stop me from playing with my black friend. We were too old to plat together. I cried, my mother cried and told me that it’s just the way it is. There was nothing good to come of me if I insisted on playing with her. She went to my friends house and asked her mother to keep her away. Her mother understood and agreed. I never saw her again. I still feel horrible about what happened.
