Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer
Helpful Village logo
Add me to your mailing list
Youtube channel Facebook page
Header image for Pasadena Village showing nearby mountains and the logo of the Pasadena Village

Blog archive

November 2024

October 2024

ARBORIST WALK: NOT FOR TREE HUGGERS ONLY!
10/29/2024

Bill Wishner: Visual Hunter
10/29/2024

Can a Village Group Fix Our Healthcare System?
10/29/2024

Community Board Directors Strengthen Village Board
10/29/2024

Connecting with Village Connections: The A, B, C, & D’s of Medicare @ 65+
10/29/2024

Grief is a Journey: Two Paths Taken
10/29/2024

Message from the President
10/29/2024

Promoting Informed & Involved Voters
10/29/2024

What Will Be Your Legacy?
10/29/2024

1619, Approaching the Election...
10/27/2024

Beyond and Within the Village - A Star is Born
10/17/2024

Happiness by Priscilla Leonard
10/11/2024

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
10/11/2024

Unpainted Door by Louise Gluck
10/11/2024

In the Evening by Billy Collins
10/10/2024

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
10/10/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

September 2024

August 2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

First Anniversary
08/19/2024

Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024

Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024

The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024

Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024

Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024

Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024

Future Housing Options
08/15/2024

Message from the President
08/15/2024

There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024

Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024

A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024

Haikus
08/13/2024

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024

Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024

Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024

Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024

Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024

Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024

Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024

Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024

Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024

Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024

Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024

Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024

Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024

No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024

An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024

Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024

Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024

The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024

Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

A memory from Middle School

By Richard Myers
Posted: 09/04/2020
Tags:
Submitted by Karen -

It was probably 1957 or 58.  I was attending Eliot Middle School in Altadena.  It was an all-white school at the time but this year a black girl was enrolled.  Her name was Deborah Sweeney.  I supposed her parents were part of the “block busters”, the black people who were buying homes in the Altadena community.  They were called “block busters” because once they bought in, “for sale” signs popped up on lawns up and down the block.  “White-flight” was beginning.

Deborah was tiny and dark.  I was big and blond.  We were both excellent students and shared all the same math, language, science and history classes.  We both wore glasses, were very smart and very often raised our hands to offer correct answers in the classroom.  We were both very shy in those days.

Without really knowing her, I liked her.  She impressed me  She was neat, smart and smiled when I looked at her.  Sometimes I would see her eating lunch alone.  It made me sad.  I wanted to invite her to join me and my friends.  But I didn’t.  I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to.  

After Eliot, Deborah and I both attended John Muir High School where there were many more brown kids.  We continued to be good students and we did eventually get to know each other a little bit but now she had her circle of friends and I still had mine.

Today I am a long way away from Eliot and those years, yet I still remember the name, Deborah Sweeney.  Over my lifetime I have thought of her and wondered how hard that time in middle school must have been for her.  Those years are hard enough when everything is going your way and you have friends.  How hard it must have been for her to be going through that age under those circumstances.  What courage she had.  What courage her parents had.

Today, at 75, I still remember her name and how she looked.  I regret that I did not have the strength of character to reach out and make friends with her.  I still wonder who she became.  My guess is that she did something great with her life.  She was smart and brave.  I wish I could say, “I knew her when…”

- Karen -



Blogs Topics Posts about this Topic