A Perfect Yesterday

By Ann L. Tucker

"A Perfect Yesterday" is Ann L. Tucker's insightful personal recollection of her teenage interracial friendship in 1970 with a young man named George. Parental pressure forced her to discontinue their friendship, but she never forgot George, who handled the abrupt ending of their relationship with grace and dignity. By doing so, George modeled a valuable life-long lesson of tolerance and understanding, influencing the author's world view.

For these reasons and more, Ann was determined to find him decades later. When she did, with George's help she created an alternative ending that celebrated and restored their friendship, this time leaving their hearts and memories intact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann L. Tucker
• Release date: Mar 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370649136

Book preview

Chapter One: Early Beginnings

April 9, 2006

Today was a perfect yesterday.

April’s bright sunshine spilled brilliantly onto our special time capsule day - one I had longed for, for thirty five years. It was finally time to live yesterday over!

We simply HAD to go back in time - this time with an alternative ending that would leave our hearts intact.

Let me explain how this special day came about.

One cold winter morning, I was perusing an on-line local newspaper. I was happy to be home, newly-retired and savoring the luxury of having the time to brush up on world happenings when an article from my high school alma mater caught my eye.

The appearance of this article portraying and celebrating my former high school as a wonderfully diverse school had me reading, with vested interest, how much the school and its social culture had improved. The article reported that the school now included a multitude of ethnicities, that students felt welcome and a new Diversity Office was available for student support. Students reported a high level of acceptance and satisfaction within the school’s culture. I was pleasantly struck by students’ accounts of how openly diverse and accepting campus life was, now.

I felt moved to add a deeper understanding to this welcome news.

I emailed the reporter, expressing how pleased I was to learn of these positive changes. I contrasted the changes with what I had witnessed on the same campus back in the 70’s.

My lengthy email described difficult racial conditions that had existed in this same quiet suburban Connecticut high school in the early 70’s. I cited frequent on-campus fights for no articulable reason, name-calling and self-imposed peer segregation in the cafeteria, on campus grounds and in the classrooms. I recalled the many pop-up assemblies where we were lectured by house masters on the value of getting along and what consequences would be issued if fighting continued. A memory of one particular assembly included adolescent me standing up, facing the sea of faces and naively pleading, Why can’t we get along? You’re all my friends! I recall being very emotional because I worried that my friends would be hurt.

I also recall the school, in mid-semester, creating and offering a new mini-course called Black History in a conciliatory attempt to respond to the on-going pop-up fights on campus. A young black male teacher in a suit was hired to facilitate this class during specific study halls. It was held in a little room in the library and anyone could sign up for it. I signed up and attended as one of two white students. I recall the room being crowded with students of color. It was an enlightening experience because it opened dialogue between black and white students. I was asked by peers why I was attending. I asked right back, Why can’t I? I stood up for myself and soon became accepted and known for having no fear of anything or anybody new. It gave me an outlet to sort through my feelings although I never talked about George in the group. Back then, I remember feeling somewhat helpless but unwilling to remain quiet.

In the article, I described the social tension caused and experienced by interracial couples who were brave enough to go public with their relationships and the associated uneasiness of having friends of color during such a tumultuous time of change. It also described the agony of being socially prohibited, even threatened, to ‘go public" with a different color friend. It brought back ugly memories, hurt feelings and associated sadness to recall those times. I never dreamed the reporter planned to use my email as a basis for a follow-up article complete with photos of me, then and now.

Its publication caused an unintended surge of attention, prompting contact from unexpected sources.

Belmiro or Junie, an older, Cape Verdean former schoolmate had read the article about me and was deeply touched. The article and photos brought him back to our difficult high school days. Junie contacted the high school, asking them to put us in touch, leaving his phone number. This gesture led to me calling him and then to our first-ever meeting in thirty five years. We shared an hours-long catch up conversation over coffee.

Junie and I had not known each other personally back then, but we had known of each other by sight, through mutual friends and through a handful of shared social experiences. Junie was not someone I was allowed to be friends with back then because of his beautiful mocha skin color. I was very surprised to learn how acutely aware Junie was of some of my high school experiences despite the fact that we never spoke to each other. This was only one of the many intriguing facts I learned while we shared our memories, experiences, perspectives and pain.

The more we talked, the more we learned.

Chapter Two: Junie

I was stunned