Thursday, January 28, 2010

devil vs angel


Mary made a devil’s food cake in a bundt pan with a swirl design to it. She added some chocolate chips to the cake mix as a little extra surprise. After it had cooled from baking she drizzled both chocolate frosting and white frosting over the cake. We had some for dessert after supper tonight. It was very good and being a devil’s food cake it was naturally a dark chocolate cake with a real rich chocolate flavor.

But chocolate cake is not what I wanted to talk about tonight. I worked at a hospital in Phoenix, AZ in the 70’s. I worked in x-ray as the supervisor of the evening shift, and there was a gentleman who worked in the hospital with the last name of Wooten. A big guy. He had played football for the Crimson Tide of Alabama at one time. He was very pleasant and he use to come to the x-ray department to chat with us. It was slow in the evenings in the x-ray department and so we would have some leisure time for talking. We got to be friends and I found out that he actually lived only a few blocks from me. I learned a lot from him and have fond memories of him. He was a gentle giant and afro-american. And I was a naive white boy who thought that he knew everything about everything. Well, I learned a lot from Wooten. We started talking about segregation and discrimination one night in the x-ray department. I told him that there wasn’t any discrimination any more. That era was over. He told me that there was still discrimination all around us. I disagreed. He asked me what color devil’s food cake was, and I answered black. Then he asked me what color angel food cake was, and I answered white. Immediately I had the realization that he was right and he smiled because he could tell by the expression of awe on my face that my eyes had been opened and I had learned the lesson that he had taught me. We went on with discussions of “white lies”, black hats vs white hats, and blockbusting which I had never heard of before. I learned a lot that night for which I am ever grateful to him for. I have often wondered whatever happened to him. He was one of God’s good people. Life is a process of continually learning. Lew

1 comment:

seaside said...

The cake looks real good. I am dining on tapioca.