A: Well, it is quite strange really; you're going to think I'm crazy. One summer when I was about seven, I was hunting June bugs in our cornfield when I heard something in the cornstalks. The noise got louder and turned into music, and all I could do was just stand there, with my mouth full of mulberries (which I now think are poisonous), confused, looking up at the slow-drifting clouds to see if they were where the music was coming from. The strings, horns and drums were as real to me as the sunlight, and I had a feeling that this music was stuck inside my head, that is it would have been there even if I had no ears- sort of like Beethoven. So, I covered my ears with my hands, and the sounds were still there and they continued until all the clouds moved away and there was nothing above me but the blue sky. Then the music was gone just the same as it had came, and I ran toward the house a little scared but jubilant at the same time. But since no one was around I just went ahead and scooted up on the piano stool and started banging on our Kimball upright-trying to imitate the sounds I had heard. You see, my father was out in the field working and he dropped

his hoe and ran to the house hearing all the noise. He opened the door and watched me with amazement because I was sitting there at the piano, screaming as loud as I could!

A: Oh no, no, no. There were a million and one things I was interested in at that time. I had a girlfriend, school to worry about staying in, a place to live, and of course, there was the thrill of travel and photography.

A: I hope that it reaches all the people that don't know how hard life could be for an African-American in the early-mid 20th century. Maybe as a caution, to open their eyes to a world that might unknown to them. The trials and the joys of life that we all go through in various degrees.

Q: What do you hope readers get out of reading your life story?

A: When I started to write this book, I wasn't really thinking about the impact it might have on society or anything, and I didn't really care if it wasn't an original idea by telling about a black man's sufferings, but I wrote it more as a way to just tell about my life. To me, I've had a pretty interesting life with all the different places I've lived, all the different jobs and aspirations, and difficulties and I guess I felt that it would also be a way to just get rid of all the bad memories of the harder times like when I was cleaning that nasty hotel in Chicago where the rooms were more like cages and the halls smelled of urine.

A: Yes. Actually, I married the girl I had a crush on ever since high school- Sally Alvis- and had a son Butch.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sally Alvis-, Gordon Parks, Earl McCray, WC Handy, God I'm, St Paul, Joe Louis', Washington DC, Paul Minnesota, Yes Actually, write music, started taking, music published, yes actually, life i've, st paul, ran house,
Approximate Word count = 1253
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)