I loved going home for the summers... [Boarding Blind] School was one thing.... But home was something else... It was a town where I knew practically everyone, where people --at least in the mind of an eleven-year-old--seemed to genuinely care 'bout each other... In addition to Mr. Pit and Miss Georgia, another couple was particularly fond of me--Henry Johnson and his wife, Miss Alice. When I first knew them, they owned a café, with a jukebox, far away in another section of town. That was another place where I spent lots of time, listening to whatever music was being played in those years--Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Erskine Hawkins, Tiny Bradshaw, Muddy Waters, Lucky Millinder, Earl Hines, and Nat Cole. As a matter of fact, many times while I was at Mr. Johnson's, people came up to give me nickels to buy ice cream and candy. But instead of buying ice cream and candy, I always put the money in the jukebox. And if I didn't have any money, I'd wait for other people to put their nickels in. If there was a way to get to listen to music, I'd find it. << less