CLARA COULD BE FEISTY!

In 1949 shortly after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in major league baseball, I saved for three months in order to purchase my genuine Brooklyn Dodger baseball cap.  Clara took my brand new Brooklyn Dodger cap and folded the bill right down the middle.  Talk about mad!  As I almost exploded in anger, she stood nose to nose with me and calmly stated, "Brother, it's only a cap."  For the life of me, I couldn't stay angry with her.  Therein lies a major difference between the two of us.  She knew how to sense what was important and how to keep matters in prospective.  She was a master negotiator blessed with unique gifts in relationship building and a reconciling spirit.  A person did not have to be perfect to be her friend because she always looked for the best in everyone.  She had an uncanny ability to make anyone in her presence feel like a million dollars.  When a stranger came into her presence, within minutes she had him or her laughing and feeling that a unique and special lifelong friendship existed between the two of them.

BRIGHT LIGHTS; BIG CITY!

In 1951 our father's career as a coal miner ended, and we relocated to Anniston, Alabama.  While this move brought about many perks (paved streets, indoor plumbing, larger school with individual classrooms for each class, etc.), it presented a short learning curve in many areas.  My mother was particularly stressed over having to cook on a natural gas stove.  Our youngest sister Wilma was terrified about starting first grade in a new and larger school.  My problem was learning the rules of a game (football) that I had never seen played before.  However, nothing fazed Clara.  She quickly set about bonding with all of her cousins from Hobson City, Silverrun and Jenifer.  She still had a flair for being very popular.

One day, Clara and several of her friends dropped by to observe football practice.  Just as they arrived, I went out for a pass and was tackled by Orage Richey of Bynum.  Not knowing the rules of football, Clara immediately ran out on the field and leaped upon Orage's back.  It took several minutes for us to explain to her that it was okay to throw someone down---that it was a legal part of the game.  You didn't mess with Clara Boyd's brother!  Years later, Orage became one of her favorite brothers-in-law.

During basketball season Clara could become almost embarrassing---the way she lambasted the referees anytime a foul was called on number 22.  The poor fellow on the opposing team that drew me as an assignment would be subjected to downright venom and harassment all night long.  Such was the love that Clara had for her older brother.

COLLEGE, TURKEY DAY CLASSIC AND GOOD TIMES

By the fall of 1958, Clara was a freshman at Alabama A & M, and I was a rising junior at Tuskegee.  Times were hard, and money was pretty tight.  Although the pipe shops of Anniston were on strike and our family had zero discretionary capital, the fact that t he two of us were in college set us apart as a well-to-do family.  Each month when I received my $110.00 allowance check from Uncle Sam, I would send Clara $4.00 so she could have spending money.

The last time we really hung out together was during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend of 1958.  We both rode the bus home on the Wednesday preceding Thanksgiving.  Early Thursday morning we drove the family car (a 1955 Chevy) down to Tuskegee and proceeded to Montgomery as part of the "Golden Tiger" convoy.  It was quite a thrill for Clara to be caught up in all of the pageantry that takes place during the Turkey Bowl Classic.  She spent the rest of the weekend jitterbugging to Bill Dogget's Honky Tonk and hanging in Tuskegee with home girls from Anniston before heading back to Huntsville Monday morning.

The next year our lives proceeded in much different directions.  I was commissioned and called to active duty in the army, and Clara landed a job as a purchasing agent for a department store         

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