Best Buy: With Her in Mind

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For this Black History Month I was asked to write about who has been inspirational to me.  I began to reflect on my youth growing up in the 70’s-80’s, my impressionable years.  I would have to say the people that have influenced me most have been my parents.  I know for most of you they will not be found in any history book or have holidays named after them, for me however I can say they truly helped to shape the person I am proud to say that I have become.

My parents were teenagers growing up in the south during the sixties.  It was a turbulent time with racial unrest, a lack of jobs in their small hometown and neither had the luxury of a college education.  What they did have was a desire to be successful and create an environment where their children would grow up having a better way of life than they had. 

My parents participated in the “great migration” north to New York city looking for that opportunity.  The call of owning his own business eventually led us all back to their hometown in Virginia where they currently reside.  It was here my parents instilled in us perseverance. When the logging business failed they didn’t give up, a hard work ethic helped on the family farm before school each morning and commitment to each other and the things we believed in. 

My parents will celebrate their 49^th wedding anniversary this summer.  As I reflect on all that they have instilled in their five children and the influence they had on a host of other family members and In our community, I couldn’t think of two better people to honor for Black History Month, my mom and dad Obie and Josephine Goodman.