My back continues to
feel as though it’s in a strait-jacket, unable to move naturally. The point of
one shoulder blade is feeling very tender, but so far there’s not been an
unbearable amount of itching, pain or heat, just general discomfort. Roll on
the time to take all these patches off.
Meanwhile, yesterday
we got along to the library. I’ve now started a new novel, “Dead Man’s Blues”
by Ray Celestin. I chose it partly as a contrast to a rather heavy novel that
meandered all over the place which I wasn’t entirely happy with. This book is essentially
a detective story set in Chicago in 1928, the days of Al Capone & the great
days of Chicago jazz, hence the blues in the title. My attention was aroused
when the story started with a description of a young black man, suitcase &
cornet case in hand, running to catch the train from New Orleans to Chicago.
His name? Louis Armstrong of course. I’ve not read sufficient to gauge the
quality of the book but it is a good start.
After dinner, we
decided to leave the TV switched off, put on some jazz (Louis of course) &
got down to the serious business of chuntering, putting the world back into
perspective. Even from what little I’ve read we couldn’t help being struck by
just how discriminatory the treatment of black people in America was in those
days. Not so long ago the Fox read Bill Bryson’s “One Summer: America, 1927” so
he has a reasonable idea of this period of American social history. From the
news I sometimes wonder how much some parts of the USA have improved. Surely,
regardless of skin colour, all people are first & foremost human beings
& should be treated with respect as such.
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