Backed Up

I have this issue. You could call it an OCD thing but it is this quirk that I have had as long as I can remember.

I hate eating in a restaurant and having my back against the wall. Like an aging gunfighter from the wild west, it gives me the creeps to not see who is coming and going.

There is no rational reason for this. It is what it is. My wife always has to sit on the side of the booth not facing the door. Mabe I read too many stories of how Wild Bill Hickok died or something when I was a kid.

So today I am watching the history channel, they have this program where they do a segment on all 50 states. The portion I caught was on North Carolina. They spoke of tobacco, banking capitols, and how Greensboro was the beginning of the sit-in movement during the civil rights era.

These four African American guys walked into a segregated diner in Greensboro, bought some school supplies, and sat down at the lunch counter and asked to be served. They were asked to leave and they wouldn't budge.

The narrator of the show I was watching said the sherriff stood behind them and smacked his billy club over and over in his hand. It hit me that these guys were some of the bravest people I had ever heard of, and my flesh crawled at the thought of not being able to see what was going on behind me; and what must have been going through those guys minds.

The result? A huge following grew behind the sit-ins and eventually Woolworths desegregated.

Felt kind of foolish after I watched that show.

I think next time I'll sit facing the back of where-ever I am eating.

Larry