The Ghetto and the Hillbilly

In 1977, when I was 15 years old, I remember sitting in the kitchen of our suburban home in St. Louis Missouri, talking with my mom, when she mentioned to me that she had seen an article in the St. Louis Globe Democrat newspaper, of my good friend’s older brother winning top door-to-door salesman of the year for the newspaper’s subscription service. She then told me that I should try and get into that as well, but I explained to her that my friend’s brother was such a smooth and convincing talker and that I could never do what he does. Well, fast forward a few months later and my good friend and I were now working for the newspaper selling the subscriptions door to door each day after school and on Saturdays to make extra money. Part of the lure was that if you sold 25 subscriptions or more a week, you received a bonus on your check each paycheck and there was also an all-expense paid trip to Daytona Beach Florida and Disney World for 5 days for the top 5 sellers of the year. You also got your picture in the Globe Democrat newspaper. So it went, every day after school we would jump into a van with seven or eight teenagers along with a chaperon driver who drove us around and then dropped us off on streets to knock on doors for the next few hours. As a teenager growing up in the suburbs in the Midwest in the 1970’s, one could never have gotten a better cultural education that we received for the next two years. Since the wealthy and well to do people already had the newspaper delivered each day, we were tasked with going into the most impoverished neighborhoods of both blacks and whites in the inner city of St. Louis, (yes, there are poor whites in the inner cities) as well as the very poor rural areas of Missouri and Illinois. The differences and similarities of the two different worlds was both staggering and very fascinating. It never failed that in both communities; it was the mother of the household that would invite you in to hear the rest of your spiel on selling the delivery subscription as well as me trying to win that trip to Florida. Once inside their dwelling, the usual was the father, a son or two, and a daughter or two, sitting on a couch watching TV or just finishing up at the supper table. These interactions with poor whites and poor blacks, was an education beyond what any schoolteacher could ever teach. Sometimes, actual touchable, breathable, and livable experiences can never be taught in a classroom.

This went on every day, every week, and every month for two years, and I can honestly say that I met some many beautiful and wonderful people along the way, which is something no one can ever give to me in a book or a conversation. When you interact with people that are so different from you, you begin to realize that they really aren’t different from you at all. Only the circumstances are different. Because of this on-the-job education of human behavior, I can honestly feel comfortable sitting down at a kitchen table and having dinner with anyone from any race, or any culture, without feeling uneasy or uncomfortable. When we see people sometimes not wanting to engage with other people, or are coming off as if they don’t like another person or group because they are from a different race or culture, the reason could simply be that they have spent time around this type of person or group, so they feel, awkward, uncomfortable, or out of place, which can be confused with being a bigot or a racist.

As time changes and the demographics change in our newly formed country, we will begin to see more people getting along and interacting positively with each other because they are unknowingly peeling away the fears of the unknown. It is these fears that can be confused with someone feeling superior, when in fact they are just uneasy for their lack of experience when it comes to intermixing socially. So if you ever want the best cultural experience of a lifetime, just go on down to your local newspaper office and tell them you want to be a door-to-door subscription seller, and aside from getting to know a bunch of hillbillies and city slickers, you might just win yourself an all-expense paid trip to Daytona Beach Florida and Disney World like I did! (Got my picture in the paper too!)

“Don’t be afraid to educate your ignorance.”