"A PLACE IN THY MEMORY..."
Freedom Summer ended, which left Cathie lonely.?She sat on the roof of her schoolhouse one evening, observing the sun; the Mississippi hills of red dirt, Pine woods, the mountains and old Negro shacks.
Silhouettes of Black people passed by --- the Chief of Police drove by…and a little girl carrying a big stick, came by --- kicking up so much dust…and then this little girl began singing softly --- “We Shall Overcome…Some…Day…!”
The breeze shifted and got tangled in Cathie’s hair.?She was homesick and longed to go sailing in the lagoon of Golden Panther Hollow. She wanted to read books, to ponder…instead of being a target for racial justice.?
She was tired.?She wanted to see a movie.?She wanted to be on her University of Pittsburgh campus and not be afraid of rednecks.?She wanted to look a White man in the face and not hate his guts.
These were melancholy thoughts.?Perhaps she could ride a train all the way back to Pittsburgh.?The rest of her classmates had gone back, but she felt there was more work to be done in Mississippi.?
She must stay and change the World!
A little boy walked by, picking up bottle caps as he moved along.?She had seen so many little boys like him, bearing the mark of the Negro.
And then she thought about Monroe.?Since he too had left, there was no day when she had not thought of him.?Especially when she was alone, on a roof top, looking into the sun.
Her memory of Monroe came back more strongly than ever before.?She remembered every moment with him.?It was absurd of course, and yet…she remembered his laughter, his words, a phrase, an inflection, soft music of his voice that floated on the breeze.?She loved him deeply, and when he left her for professional football, the door to her heart closed shut.
Here on this roof top she thought about him --- and each of her thoughts melted into the next one…so that she remembered him always with her; Monroe listening, Monroe rejoicing, consoling, advising, tempering, laughing, loving, living, Monroe! Monroe! Monroe!
“A place in thy memory, Dear one
Is all that I claim,
To pause and look back when thou
Hearest
The sound of my name ---!”
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