A liberating atmosphere in Atlanta, Georgia
White compares Atlanta and Durham. Atlanta was much more diverse, and White embraced a more liberal atmosphere, returning to Durham with a hairstyle that shocked his mother.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with William E. White Jr., October 29, 2000. Interview R-0147. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- ASHLEY CROWE:
-
Was there any big change, do you think to you, between living in Durham
and going to Atlanta to live? In terms of the way people live?
- WILLIAM E. WHITE, JR.:
-
Oh definitely. 'Cause I was and eighteen-year-old kid
who'd spent all of his-well the last five years - in the
country. And then I got shoved in, well in the city, with city kids,
city dwellers. We didn't go out after one o'clock
in the morning, but you did in Atlanta, there was something going on all
the time. In Durham in 1970 they rolled the sidewalks up about six
o'clock.
- ASHLEY CROWE:
-
They still do.
- WILLIAM E. WHITE, JR.:
-
For the most part, you're right. Lord in downtown Atlanta you
could do something twenty-four hours a day. I guess the best example, my
roommate and I got ripped one night, and about two blocks, three blocks
from our house, there was a place called Piedmont Park. And so
we're out there, high as a kite, swinging on the swings at
one or two in the morning. And its, oh okay, act straight, no giggling,
no laughing. He said, "Gentlemen, do you realize how dangerous
it is what your doing right now?" "No
officer." He said, "You don't need to be in
the park after dark, it's very dangerous, please go
home." In Durham, you wouldn't think of going to the
park at one in morning. Of course if you had, you probably would have
been safer. So yeah, it was - I had a great deal of culture shock.
- ASHLEY CROWE:
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Was it more diverse or was it just more open?
- WILLIAM E. WHITE, JR.:
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Both. Much, much more diverse. The street my apartment was on, oh dear
god, we had blacks, and Indians, and Native Americans, and Asians, I
mean it was like a little strip of the UN It was good.
- ASHLEY CROWE:
-
And then did you have that reverse culture shock when you coming back
here again?
- WILLIAM E. WHITE, JR.:
-
Kinda. It was more a case of, oh, I forgot about this. Umm,
[Laughter] especially when I got off the
airplane. My mom sent to Atlanta a clean shaven shorthaired
naïve little white kid. What came back, oh god, I had this
Fu-Manchu mustache down to here [chin length]. And my hair is believe it
or not curly, I had my own 'fro. And my mom didn't
even hug me when I got off the plane She kinda put me out at arms length
and said, [puts on accent] "Well, if you clean it up the
mustache can stay but that damn hair has got to go." Got a hair
cut on the way home. What I learned from there on out
when I was coming home from Atlanta was, go have the hair
cut the way I wanted it cut, then I wouldn't have to go get
butchered. That was the kind of thing, it was like, "Oh god,
I'm back in Durham I forgot about this."