Influentia: 50 Years on Earth as it is in Carolyn

By Carolyn McDonald

A cleverly written memoir comprised of a collection of colorful essays, INFLUENTIA celebrates the 50 most influential people, places & things in Ms. McDonald's life, thus far. Being a part of what she coins the "Bridge Generation" spanning the past and the future, the book also chronicles changes in technology and media over the last half century, spotlighting media and entertainment icons such as Michael Jackson, Polaroid, Apple and the Today Show.

"Of course, people like my great-grandparents, my Uncle Jack, my little brother, and my 4th grade teacher played major parts in shaping who I've become; but I couldn't ignore how much media and technology has influenced me and pretty much everyone who grew up during this time," McDonald said. "It felt so great to revisit my 'stomping grounds' Rockefeller Center, Paris, The Met and LA's South Bay on the page, and share my favorite toys. With contemporaries like Madonna, Clooney and Bono, we really are the coolest generation because we're old enough to know what to do with all the technology available -- and still look good."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carolyn McDonald
• Release date: May 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476032245

Carolyn McDonald

Carolyn McDonald has been the catalyst behind some of the most prestigious projects and artists in film & television. She executive produced and directed P.N.O.K., a film featuring Irma P. Hall, Danny Glover, Robert Ri’chard and Elle Fanning. As partner of Danny Glover at Carrie Productions, she executive produced the Emmy-nominated TNT civil rights saga, FREEDOM SONG, the critically acclaimed TNT Western BUFFALO SOLDIERS and the landmark HBO trilogy AMERICA’S DREAM, winner of 4 Cable Aces and an NAACP Image Award for Best Made-for-TV Movie. A prolific screenwriter, she co-wrote the comedy RETURN OF THE SWEETBIRDS from her story for 20th Century Fox. She recently directed and produced the documentary, DESIGN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD for the Nashville Civic Design Center, and has produced and directed four documentaries for the Nashville Film Festival's Youth Outreach Film Project. Carolyn studied acting with Uta Hagen, Earle Hyman, the late Geraldine Page, and at SUNY Purchase, and is an alumni of Judith Weston’s Actor/Director’s Lab. An avid photographer, her NOUNS IN THE ROAD collection has been exhibited in galleries around the country.

Book preview

INFLUENTIA: 50 Years On Earth as it is in Carolyn

by

Carolyn McDonald

Copyright 2012 Carolyn McDonald

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold, given away to other people, reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means (including, but not limited to the forwarding of PDF copies!), or stored into a database or retrieval system. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Prelude: A Cacophony of Angst @ 3:37am

Wade, North Carolina

Martha Jane Kenon Barnes McDonald

William Shine McKinley McDonald

My Uncle Jack Kenon

Rev. E.V. McIver

The Bible

London, England

WIDU-AM 1600 on your radio dial.

Mr. Sidney Poitier

Grand Central Terminal

Curtis Bernard Bern McDonald

District 7 Elementary School

Mrs. Tilghman

The Flip Wilson Show

Polaroid ‘Big Shot’ camera

Kenly, North Carolina

My First Sony

The Jackson 5

The ABC Movie of the Week

My Craig portable reel-to-reel tape recorder

Greyhound Buslines

Port Chester, New York

Ajemola Olaniyan a/k/a Charles Fraiser

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

My Cousin Bobby’s Buick Electra 225

Rockefeller Center

My Pentax K-1000

Tony Morris

Dr. Noemi Mattis

My Cousin Sport

World Trade Center

SUNY Purchase

Len Jenkin

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Tina Bruno

Martine-Joelle

U2

Egmont

Paris, France

Cora T. Walker, Esq.

Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith

Sedona, Arizona

Marianne Ruuth

South Bay, Los Angeles, California

The Reverent June Juliet Gatlin

My Casio Pocket Digital Camera

My Apple Mac Power Book G4.

My First iPod

The Nashville Public Library

Me, Thyself and I

About the Author

Introduction

Half a century?! Seriously? Seriously! Some of my girlfriends have issues about divulging their age. But after witnessing the early departures of both notable and obscure people our age or less, I’m happy to have survived the time on earth; and down right giddy that I can still keep up with the ingénues in my kickboxing class.

As a proud member of this Bridge Generation (born between 1957 and 1962), with peers like Bono, Madonna, George Clooney, Sean Penn and Barack Obama, who learned how to type on a Hamilton manual typewriter, yet now wield Apple gear, I heartily embrace our swing shift in eternity. We were born at a time when the electronic media devices we use everyday (and some of their inventors) weren’t even conceived. As a collective of respectable hipsters – who still look good – we are committed to the values and vision we were instilled with before the existence of 500 channels of duh…

I vividly remember reading a Weekly Reader article in 2nd grade stating that there were more people born in 1960 than any other year in the 20th century – as of 1968, anyway. But since that kinder, gentler season when we entered the earthly plane, the challenges to endure diseases, wars, skirmishes, plagues, super storms, the effects of global warming, factory malfunctions, the disco era, drugs (legal or illegal), and fast food, have multiplied faster than Tribbles (you’d have to be one of us to get that reference). Perhaps the last generation to be instilled with a sense of entitlement as a result of accomplishment, we’ve witnessed moonwalks (both literal & figurative), shrinking phones, fax machines, integration, Starbucks, Pet Rocks, Star Naming, bottled water, email, i-Anything, Android apps, Kindles, electric cars and countless cures and spiritual awakenings while leaping hurdles to get to our destiny on time.

At previous times in history, those who were lucky enough to live to see 50 years old with a fully operational body were often put out to pasture by younger generations seeking to make a mark for themselves in the world. Most lethally targeted were 310-dwelling first wives and corner office pre-Google VPs without smart phones. But we jolly wise lot of timelessly youthful 50-somethings have sown unshakable roots in our social fabric, establishing iconic roles that will impact culture from this time forward. We are comfortable in our skin, peaceful in our souls, and thankful for each moment of looking backward and forward. We appreciate both the fall of antiquated systems and the launch of innovations our grandparents never even dreamed of. Some things do remain the same: the sun still sets in the west, seasons still bring the birth of new fruits and humans still chew, spit and shit. To this vast spectrum of faces, places and spaces, INFLUENTIA pays homage.

While I’ve been blessed to have an abundance of loving friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues in this ‘score plus 10’ of breathing, there are people who have indelibly marketed my soul. Sometimes sown in the worst of circumstances, sometimes even invisible, but usually bearing luscious metaphorical fruits, they’ve brought tears to my eyes, cracks in my heart, giggles, grins and awe from ear to ear. Because of these people, places and things, I have learned to walk, run, fall, then get back up and walk again. Simply put, they are a part of my multi-dimensional atomic make-up.

Though certain ‘names are not in this number,’ it is not due to lack of love. In fact, it would take an encyclopedia to celebrate those I love and have loved. But because I wanted to limit the book to fifty stories at this juncture, I have defined influential nouns here as Those that brought out the verb in me. The stories in this book caused me to take life-changing actions after offering access to knowledge or an experience that brought on a new paradigm of thinking. Some incidents unfold over a period of years. Others, in a split second. This list is not in order of status or degree of influence, but by chronological occurrence in my journey.

Hopefully you’ll be inspired to celebrate your own influential nouns. I seriously pray that whatever has possessed me to crawl so far up into the bowels of my existence, includes in Its purpose a chateau in Cote D’Azur. 

CMc, 1 December 2011

Acknowledgements

My first expression of gratitude goes to anyone and everyone, known and unknown, who has ever uttered a prayer for me. Period. My next round of applause goes out to my posse of sister girls who have offered their unconditional love, time, support, prayer and sometimes cash in the midst of my despair, and celebrated with me in times of triumph, both personal and public:

Angie C., Cari M., Clara B., Denise B., Denise W., Donna B., Donna C., Donna L., Edna S., Elisabeth S., Elizabeth A., Emily A., Felicia P., Gisela M., Jackie B-R, Jaki B., Jasmine G., Jennifer S., Jeri B., Joanne D., Karen B., Karyn B., Kate P., Kim T., Kay W. Lanae B., Lawanda B., Lisa H., Mary W., Michele P., Nina L., Rina S., Sabine S., Sallie M., Sandra M., Sharon K., Shawna McG., Silvia B., Stephanie McC., Susan G., Susan H., Susan L., Susan S., Tambre L., Teri D. and Veronica A.

To My Brothas’-in-Arms: Aje O., Barry C., Ben C., Brian O., David B., David M., Chris H., Damien H., Eric McD., Damien H., Derell S., Dwight C., Gabe S., Gary G., Geoff M., Geoff O., Glynn T., James T., Jay L., Jim J., Jonathan G., Juney S., Kenny A., Larry N., Marc S., Michael D., Michael McB., Mykelti W., Patrick R., Rob G., Rob L., Rob M., Robert M., Robert C., Ted C., Tony A., Tony G., and Wayman R.

And all unnamed peoples, aunts, cousins, nephews (Brandon, Eric & Justin), great-niece (A’arianna) and one particular shoulda-been-my-baby’s-daddy.

I’m humbly and exceedingly grateful for your love & support! May God continue to bless you and all you love!

For my mother, Claristine, who gave her living for me.

To my daughter, Martine-Joelle, a lover of all things bubbly and true, who’s been upholding the rights of misfits and underdogs since 1994.

Prelude: A Cacophony of Angst @ 3:37am

Is it possible to love yourself, but hate your life ? I mean, I’m grateful and everything, but what the fuck am I doing here? This too is meaningless. A chasing after the wind… I definitely should have made that right turn in Albuquerque, like Bugs said.

At least I woke up. A whole lot of people didn’t or won’t. And imagine those who will wake up next to the fugliest mistake they ever made. Capital D-‘Nial! I have some nerve to talk… When’s the last time I woke up next to anybody… fugly, fine or charming?

What am I doing here…. ‘the f--k am I doing here…?

When all else fails, I usually resort to karmic debt or ethnic guilt. But the latter is pissy weak leverage at this dispensation of time; and the former is being raided by Confederate ghosts in my present earthbound quadrant.

Quote-unquote midlife is bullshit… Bern died at seventeen, so technically his midlife occurred at 8.5 years old. Age and death are so irrelevant to living. At the blink of an eye, a super cell storm, a wiggle of Mother Earth, starvation, a suicide bomber, fast food or any disease of the week could usher you back into eternity, no matter how many times you’ve exhaled.

Had I not driven my damn self to the emergency room, I’d swear I was abducted by a band of renegade aliens. No wonder health care costs as much as a townhouse in Manhattan. There are more wireless tablets, screens and keypads in this exam room than Best Buy. How do they expect my blood pressure to remain stable in this cyber-cave? I haven’t seen a human in an hour. All these wires attached to me are obviously wired to a mainframe, connected to the hospital’s ‘nerve center.’ The bill for this shit may very well give me a real heart attack.

God knows he’s fine, but any man who tells me to my face that sleeping with him is suicidal is crazy as South Hell, and I need to Ex-Nay, Muy Rapido Ahora! How could God waste all that ‘fine’ on such a psychotic cad? His grace is sufficient, so I will behold the glory of his beauty FROM AFAR!

Starting all over again is gonna be rough… No shit?!

I know what I want, but I just don’t know how to go about getting it. Thank you for that, Mr. Hendrix!

Not even Pat Metheny can soothe my soul! This is bad; and not with the love of MJ.

The clock is not my friend…

One more beer… another cigarette. Addiction is rearing its ugly head again. How did I regress from champagne to beer? This so not even like sexy anymore… You’d think that contemplating all the crunches I’m gonna have to do to carve this belly off would motivate me away from the Blue Moon, but no. One six pack kicks the other six pack’s ass.

The boy inside my head can’t be the man inside my heart. I should have known it from the start… I need to finish that song.

Fear, anxiety and depression have hijacked my heart…

Things used to be so easy...

What am I doing wrong…?!

Yes, that wrong turn at Albuquerque did it. For the record, let’s recap: After all the roads I’ve trodden (is that even a word?), I should know better.

I’m staring at the enemy, and it is ME!

And the answer is…

Wade, North Carolina. 1960 - 1974

I am told that I was born here on a frigid Sunday evening at about 6 o’clock. My barely 16-year old mother endured a pre-vogue natural childbirth in the middle of February. I’ve no doubt that her teeth shivered madly between labor pains in that drafty cinder block house that possessed no