Saturday Haiku: Watercourse

breaking winter’s chill

the high country watercourse

teaches rocks to sing

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Photo by Charles Kinnaird: A scene from Turkey Creek Nature Preserve

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Friends Writing Good Books: Chervis Isom

Chervis Isom
(Photo from author's website)

I met Chervis Isom one summer a few years back at the Alabama Writers' Conclave. We struck up a friendship and had some nice discussions in between conference sessions. Since that time we have met periodically for lively discussions about writing, living in the South, and life in general. His book, The Newspaper Boy, came out in 2014, and I wrote a review in July of that year. It is a story about “Coming of age in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights era.”  I found the book to be engaging, informative, and instructive on many levels.

I mentioned in my review that  "I learned important details about how local government was structured, and how speeches by a rabble-rousing Ace Carter of the White Citizens Council revved up the populace in an attempt to preserve segregation." In fact, when Donald Trump was first gaining momentum in the presidential race, I immediately saw some similarities between his campaign and Ace Carter's demagoguery in Birmingham during the 1950s. I contacted Cheris for his input and observations on today's political climate and wrote about that in another blog post earlier this year.

Here is the review I shared in July of 2014:

 

The Newspaper Boy: A Memoir that Looks into the Heart of a City 

 

I just finished reading a very important book. The Newspaper Boy, by Chervis Isom, is a well-written and entertaining memoir, subtitled, “Coming of age in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights era.” I first met Chervis a few years ago at the Alabama Writers’ Conclave and have always enjoyed my conversations with him. When news of his book came out, I was eager to get a copy.

The Newspaper Boy is fascinating on several different levels. It is delightful and engaging as a story about a boy growing up in a working class family, going to school, discovering girls, and getting his first job delivering papers. It is also an important first-hand account of an historical time in the city of Birmingham. I have written before on this blog about civil rights and growing up in the Deep South under the apartheid of racial segregation, but in reading Chervis Isom’s memoir, I gained a much clearer picture of what was happening in Birmingham during those days leading up to the civil rights movement. I learned important details about how local government was structured, and how speeches by a rabble-rousing Ace Carter of the White Citizens Council revved up the populace in an attempt to preserve segregation. I also learned about the important work of some open-minded civic leaders such as David Vann and Abraham Berkowitz.

It was inspiring for me to read about how an ordinary young fellow growing up in a society steeped in racism began to question a way of life that had once been accepted without question. It is a story about being able to listen to another point of view and thereby beginning a slow process of change. It is a story about how a liberal arts education can propel a young college student to approach life with a much broader view. It is a story about quietly finding liberation from the shackles of cultural ignorance.

For more information about this important book, you can visit the author’s website for The Newspaper Boy at http://www.thenewspaperboy.net . To read a very fine interview with the author in Weld, go here. For another review of the book, go here. The Newspaper Boy is a thoughtful reflection of a life lived during times of change. It is also a book that is important for our time as we face new hopes and challenges for building a city that works for the benefit of all.

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Friends Writing Good Books: Camille Foshee-Mason

I met up with Camille Foshee-Mason at the Local Authors Expo last month at the Birmingham Public Library. I think it was the second time we have seen each other since high school graduation almost 40 years ago. Camille was there with her memoir, Duty Shoes, A Nurse's Memoir. I had written a review of her book last April and was only too happy to stop by her table at the expo. While I have been in healthcare as a nurse for 20 years, she has spent 40 years in the field and has an exciting memoir about her training and her experiences.

As I stated in my review, "Her memoir stands as a wonderful testament to the role of nurses and their value in the lives of so many today." Moreover, the proceeds from the sales of her book go toward scholarships for nursing students.  Here is the review that I posted in April of 2015:

Duty Shoes, A Nurse's Memoir

Camille Foshee and I were members of the same graduating class in our small town high school back in the day. She immediately entered a nurse training program and soon thereafter began her career as a nurse. I myself would find my way into nursing twenty years later as a midlife career change.  Naturally, it was with great interest that I read her book, Duty Shoes, A Nurses Memoir.  Camile Foshee-Mason has written an memorable account of her career in nursing that makes for very interesting reading and will illuminate for the reader the important role nurses play in the field of healthcare.

Think about the last time you went to see a doctor, you probably saw a nurse first. If you have ever been a patient in a hospital, you have experienced nursing care as central to your recovery in moving toward optimal health. Wherever you access the healthcare system, you will encounter a nurse. Did you ever wonder what that nurse’s training entails or what the life of a nurse is like? You can find out by reading Ms. Foshee-Mason’s memoir. The book is a great model for young nurses and nursing students to get an idea of what nursing is all about. It is also a wonderful way for others to see what nurses experience from day to day.

In Duty Shoes, you will follow a bright-eyed high school student as she begins to test the waters of a career in nursing and then takes the step into professional training.  The author then opens the reader’s eyes into the world of nurse training and practice as she details how her life unfolded into a rewarding career.  Her book provides us with a first-hand account of nursing experience through many avenues available in healthcare today, from community hospitals to home health care.

There is such vivid imagery in the writing that I could clearly visualize many scenes the author described. There was the doctor at work in the delivery room, the visits to rural homes as a home health nurse, the scene of the concerned nurse standing on the heli-pad watching her granddaughter being air-lifted to Children’s Hospital, and so many other vivid scenes.

Foshee-Mason’s memoir is important in a number of ways. I found it to be an excellent example of how there are many avenues open to nurses throughout their careers and it is also a snapshot of recent history in the field of nursing. Another important contribution is in the author’s recounting her experiences as she trained at a hospital-based diploma nurse program. With so much of nurse training moving to college campuses, hospital-based training is becoming rarer, yet it stands as an important beacon in the history of nursing. Moreover, diploma nursing programs have done so much to shape the role of the nurse in modern society.

Duty Shoes, A Nurses Memoir is a fascinating account that will be of interest to seasoned nurses as well as to nursing students or high school students contemplating a career in healthcare. It should also be noted that Camille Foshee-Mason has dedicated the proceeds from sales of her book toward scholarships for nursing students. Her memoir stands as a wonderful testament to the role of nurses and their value in the lives of so many today.

From the back cover of Duty Shoes

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