"Woke up this morning...

feeling fine (fine,fine,fine) Woke up with heaven on my mind (mind,mind,mind).  That was the intro to Brother Strickland's theme song for Round the Market House News ( a local radio program).

I'm not sure how many decades I listened to that program with my grandfather.  I know that I wasn't allowed to talk while it was on.  Brother Strickland was truly a Christian man.  I never met him, but I always admired him.  He delivered good Christian messages in a beautiful white southern twang between paid advertisements and the news.

"The Market House" was one of the buildings left over from the antebellum period.  My grandfather told me that some of our relatives were sold there.  It is a beautiful brick edifice with a heart breaking history.  Many people tried to blow it up but they always failed.

I personally love it.  I never want to see it destroyed or torn down.  I cherish it.  We should always be reminded of where we came from.  The "Market House" sits right in the middle of downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina in a round-about where four streets converge.  One is Hay Street, the other is Person Street. (I can't recall the other two right now).

I remember Person Street quite clearly.  Person Street was the place to be if you were black .  Country folk crowded it on "Sat'dey".  The black doctors and lawyers were on that street, Dr. Bugg and Lawyer George. There were rows of stores that sold what I considered to be gaudy clowny clothes to the country bumpkins fresh from the tobacco fields.

McCrorey's sat nearby on Hay street.  They sold the best chilli dogs I ever ate.  If you were "colored" you went to the end of the counter and put in your order.  They put it in a bag and you politely left and ate it outside.  It was against the law for you to sit at the counter.

Brother Strickland spared no one.  If you were arrested for the least crime he reported it. Drunk driving, shop lifting, burglary, flim-flaming.  Flim-flaming was my favorite.  My cousin, granddaddy's nephew, ***** Walters was often mentioned on Brother Strickland's program.

We called him Junebug.  He was tall and handsome, looked a lot like my granddaddy.  He loved my granddaddy and my granddaddy loved him.  Life had been hard for Junebug, his daddy was a gambler and his mother was a bootlegger, among other things. But, Junebug was smart.  He was a true hustler, pool, cards, dice, boosting.  He was a criminal.  But he was never a stick-up man.  He was the greatest flim-flam artist I ever heard of.

They say there is "honor among thieves".  I believe that about my cousin.  I never heard of him wronging or taking advantage of a single relative.  He was very generous and caring.   He always shared the loot he stole.
I would characterize him as an honest criminal.

The worse criminal is the criminal without a heart.  A criminal void of all morals.  A man or woman that will do anything to small defenseless children and the infirm elderly.  Common people like that do exist.  Stay away from them.  For GOD's sake don't hide or cloak them.  A person that can't say that they are sorry are the sorriest creatures on earth.  Shun them.

Wake up with heaven on your mind.  Thank GOD every day for His Love and protection.  Free yourself from the demons that haunt you and you will be walking on air, singing in the sunshine.

Stay in His WORD children.  Remember; "Apart from Christ you are nothing."

May GOD's Grace, Mercy and Truth engulf you, cloak you and keep you in Perfect Peace,
Rachel Gwendolyn (the exceedingly proud granddaughter of a great Patriarch, JEROME WALTERS)