How does it feel? I ask. Check Yes or No winds down, and a stadium filled with 80,000 fans erupts. Amid the claps and screams and shouts, What goes through your mind? Marty Slayton Jordan is way too kind and modest to admit the experience is one gigantic rush. But don’t you know it is?…
Jennifer Clinger – Human Trafficking Survivor
The first night in her new apartment, Jennifer Clinger sat down to a meal of pancakes and sausage. She’d prepared a combination of breakfast and dinner—“brinner,” she calls it. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she devoured “the best pancakes ever”—in her home, at her table, in her kitchen. “The night I ate those pancakes,”…
Laticia Williams – Lunch Counter Segregation
As a teenager, Laticia Williams’ grandmother needed a new pair of shoes. In the basement of Nashville’s FW Woolworth building, one of the original “five and dime” stores in the country, the sales clerk agreed to sell Big Mama the shoes. But, like in other stores of the day, Big Mama wasn’t allowed to try…
Matt Logan – Costume Designer and Builder
Backstage, at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Matt Logan crossed his fingers and glued his eyes to the tv monitor. He’d dressed the superstar entertainer and rigged all the hooks and ties and snaps in the right spots. All he could do now was watch and listen and hope the act went off without a hitch. Along…
Norma Clippard – Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt
People in their fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties are different from those a generation ago. Today’s individuals approaching “senior status” are healthier and more active. They are curious and want to continue to learn about the world around them. Four decades ago, Bernard Osher, and his foundation, began to lay the groundwork for a learning…