This morning I went to the AARP meeting and lunch. Was glad to see Phyllis, she chewed me up though for not telling her I'd felt so ill, but there wasn't anything anyone could have done for me. I'm feeling alright at the moment. After the business part of the meeting, and lunch, a jazz group came and played Dixieland music, which I understand - because I looked it up - is a form of jazz which developed in New Orleans in the early 20th century.
This evening Pattisue and I went to the movies and saw 'The Butler'. It was soooooo good we are both going to see it again, and we are going out for an ice cream tomorrow evening to talk about it because there was so much food for thought - and discussion - in it.
The butler is an African American who became a butler at The White House and is set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. He started when Eisenhower was President in 1953 and left during Reagan's administration in 1981. When I got home I looked up the presidents, and there were seven administrations from 1953 until 81. At the end of the film he, the butler, and his wife (played by Oprah Winfrey) were very old, and they were shown watching Obama become President.
I was aware at the time of the Civil Rights Movement going on, but hadn't realised just how bad it was, and how racially divided America was. Pattisue was telling me in the car park that she lived in Mississippi for two years and during that time the Supreme Court ordered all schools to be integrated, so Mississippi repealed the law making school attendance compulsory, so that white children wouldn't have to go to school with black.
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