‘Lil FoodSpook in 1952
My daddy was a preacher. My family lived in Richmond, California. My mother and father came to California during World War II to work in the shipyards. The money was really good for poor Black people from the rural south. My parents prospered. They bought a home in 1950. We had a new TV by 1952. I was four years old at the time, and became a TV addict for life. My dad also worked as a butcher at the grocery store across the street from our house. On weekends my dad and I worked doing White people’s yards. We cut lawns, pruned trees and shrubs, and even cleared hillsides of weeds and vegetation. I was eight years old at the time. When we arrived home at 6 or 7 PM on Saturday evening both of my little brown hands had long blood filled blisters crossing the the entire palm of each hand. I survived.
My father’s father was also a preacher. My grandfather and another minister started a church in Texas in the early 1900′s that is now nationwide. In my father’s church was the beginning of my first awareness of “sugar diabetes”. The end results of diabetes always affected the elder Sisters of the church. These are the same ladies that cooked unbelievable soul food breakfasts, lunch, and dinners at church and in their homes. I will never forget these women for as long as I live.
The same ladies I’m speaking of, lost limbs. One lady would have some toes amputated. Another would lose a foot. A senior man would lose his eyesight. Many, many of the senior citizens in my church arrived at church on Sunday mornings in wheel chairs or on crutches. Myself, ‘Lil FoodSpook, thought this was normal. As a child I had no comprehension of the effect of diet and one’s health. In the Black community, we were so happy to anywhere outside of slavery that even existing was a great bonus. But we didn’t know. The eating habits we acquired during the 400 years of slavery had also inslaved us to generations of bad health. Diabetes affects Black people twice the rate in White people. Type II diabetes is preventable. Obesity in most cases is a lifestyle. Obesity can make you become a diabetic. I still remember leading the blind and handicapped elders from my father’s church to their cars. I remember thinking, when is this going to happen to me?
Please do not take diabetes lightly. It is deadly. It can incapacitate you. It causes blindness, loss of limbs, dialysis, and shortness of life. Lose weight! Exercise. Start looking at the foods you are consuming. We have been living with bad nutritional habits that have been dictated to us in a very subtle way, TV ads mainly. Ronald McDonald is a serial killer. A little exercise and a little judgement about the foods you eat, goes a long way. Good habits Can be learned. Bad habits can be reversed. Take just one step for your life. The next few steps are a little less painful. After a while good habits become a way of life. You don’t have to wait for a government or state program. Your life is in your hands.
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