I have been a writer, since I was five years old. I wrote a commercial for a cereal company and sent it to them. They thought I showed promise, as they were just being kind, and told me to check back with them in 18 years. I never did, mainly because they stopped making OK Cereal. I started writing songs in the 4th grade. I started writing serious poetry in the 8th grade, and I began writing plays in the 12th grade. All that is to say, I like to write. I also like writers. My mother was a writer, as was her sister. So, this story is about writers.
I had an English teacher in the 12th grade named Mrs. Greene. Her husband taught Theatre at USC, and she introduced us to James Dickey. He was a world-renown poet, and he wrote the novel "Deliverance". He wanted us to call him "Jim", so we did. Jim invited us over to his house which was crammed with books. Most writers have a lot of books. He was very gracious to us, and we picked his brain on how to write poetry. I already knew, or I thought I did, but he opened our eyes to imagery in poetry. I also got to know his son Chris who later became a journalist. He was the first American to be at the site of Princess Diana's car crash in Paris.
A few years later, I was a Senior at PC and was taking a class on Modern Poetry. I hated the teacher, because I felt his interpretations of poems were way off. I failed the course, because I rebelled against him. However, he knew Jim Dickey and invited him to come to our school to read some of his works and have lunch with our class. Jim remembered me from my class in high school, and he invited me to sit next to him at lunch. He had been drinking, which was not unusual for him, and his breath just about knocked me over. It was nice to see him, though. He did sign a book of poetry for me next to one of his famous poems which was "Buckdancer's Choice".
About three years after that, I was living in Fort Worth across from TCU. I heard that Jim was going to do a lecture one night, and I went to say hello. After it was over, I was walking up to him, and he called out my name and gave me a big bear hug. He was surprised to see me, and we were able to catch up on his family. His wife and daughter were there, too. I found a spoken word record at a store of Jim reading his poetry. I should have had him sign it. Jim had his faults, but I learned a lot from him. He was one of my writing mentors.
The other famous writer that I met was Alex Haley. He came to PC to speak about his book upcoming book called "Roots". We talked about Civil Rights, and the part that my cousin played as a Freedom Rider with Dr. King. He was interesting to talk to, but his ego was pretty big. There was just a small group of students around him, including me. Little did we know that "Roots" would be a best seller and a TV mini-series, which was extremely popular.
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