February 7, 2015The American University LibraryWashington, D.C. For the record, I have documented everything you can imagine about Emmett, including family members and close friends of Emmett, receipts or documents mentioning Emmett, schools in which he was enrolled, clubs he attended, and so forth. I like my data organized, chronological, […]
Christmas Day, 1900 The Wilson Home,Chipley, Florida Have you ever seen pictures of seated royalty on their thrones? The ones featuring a king, with princes and other members of the royal family seated around a central authority figure in descending order of power? If you stood Father’s front yard that […]
May 18, 2014, 11:40 a.m. Pensacola Historic District Clearly, I am in the presence of awesomeness. I can’t describe it, but as I walk around historic downtown Pensacola with Jacki Wilson, retracing Emmett Wilson’s everyday steps, I am aware and humbled by her true awesomeness. For the record, my relationship […]
May 18, 2014, 10:45 a.m. Pensacola Historic District It wasn’t hard to find the parking lot behind the old City Hall building in downtown Pensacola. Even if my van’s GPS decided to conk out, one wouldn’t get lost. The darn thing is a hulking example of beige Spanish architecture. It’s […]
May 18, 2014, 8:45 a.m.St. John’s Cemetery Pensacola The female GPS voice crisply announces “Destination,” as I pull up slowly along North G Street, in the St. John’s Coalition neighborhood in Pensacola. I feel my stomach know up with anxiety. It’s not logical; there’s no reason for anxiety, but it […]
December 22, 1900Dr. Francis C. Wilson’s Office, Downtown Chipley Continued from here. === I climbed the stairs and paused at the top; my heart was pounding. I closed my eyes, and counted to ten; rubbed the center of my chest. Touched the liquor flask hidden in my coat pocket. After […]
May 18, 2014, about 6 a.m., Leaving Montgomery, Alabama I have a lot to think about on my way to Pensacola. It’s good to be out and about, especially since I don’t have a specific date or time with the person I’m meeting, but I wasn’t been able to sleep […]
May 17, 2014, Montgomery, Alabama, about 3 p.m. Her eyes. They are so blue, piercingly blue. I catch my breath audibly. But it isn’t just her eyes that get me — it is the moment. I can’t believe it. And in response, she laughs, kindly, cheerfully at me. I am […]
May 17, 2014, Montgomery, Alabama, about 1 p.m. I’m in a car with Carol B., whom I met in person five minutes earlier. She picked me up from my friend Margaret’s house in Montgomery. Carol’s taking me to meet her mother, Jule Wilson Perry, who I found about six months […]
Friday, May 24, 2014, 2 pm 6th StreetChipley The May afternoon is brilliant and hot, but the porch is cool and shady, just as it would have been when my cousin, Dr. Francis Wilson, sat in his rocking chair, smoking his pipe, reading The Chipley Banner in 1913. Closing my […]
Tell my story. 