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I discovered Studs Terkel about 7 or 8 years ago. I was pregnant and needed something to read to help me through the sleepless nights. I drove a few towns over and went to a local thrift store. They had oodles of noodles of books, so I took my time, thinking that I had no clue what I wanted to read … My eyes fell upon a book called Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel about the American Obsession. I picked it up thinking, ‘Great, another race book…’ You see, I was carrying a Biracial child at the time. I had had my FILL of “What will you raise it as? Black or White?”

A few times I answered with an extremely serious face, “I think I will raise it as a squirrel or a prairie dog. I hear they’re pretty cool.”

The Nosy Nellies were usually not amused …

… and neither was I.

I thumbed through the Studs Terkel book, shocked that this old (and I do mean old) White guy had the gall (courage) to present more than one side of the ‘race’ issue.

I was shocked that everyone from the Jewish grandma to the young Black activist to the Klu Klux Klan member was willing to talk so openly and so honestly with Studs about such a polarizing issue.

Doing a little research on this ‘crazy old guy,’ I found out that Mr. Terkel had spent his entire life fighting and speaking for America’s uncelebrated.

Ironically, last week I went to another thift store and my eyes fell upon a book called Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith. It was by Studs. I was not going to get it because it was not on my shopping list that day, but something inside told me to “Get it!”

A couple of nights later, I started it. I stopped to say a little prayer that the 96 year old Mr. Terkel would live to see his choice candidate, if elected, fellow Chicagoan Barack Hussein Obama become President of the United States of America.

… unfortunately, that was not to be …

Mr. Studs (Louis) Terkel, Pulitzer Prize winning broadcaster and oral historian, born May 16, 1912 passed away on October 31, 2008.

Halloween

A humorist to the end.

– Nappy Kitchen