This article was originally published in "Richardson Living" magazine. Read it on that website or read it here. Or read it in print. Look for it in your mail box.
Traveling the World...Without Leaving Richardson
City Hall
The town where I grew up was anything but diverse. It seemed to me like everyone was white and descended from northern European Catholics or Protestants, just like I was. There were no blacks on my street. Or anywhere else in my not-so-small city. There were no Hispanics. Or Asians. No Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus. There were no other ethnic groups in my school. Or in my church. I grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the mid-twentieth century. I thought I was unprejudiced. In fact, I just didn't have any opportunities to test me. To me, diversity meant we had a German Catholic church and an Irish Catholic church. There was no Italian Catholic church, but there was a place to get pizza, said to be the first pizza restaurant north of Milwaukee. That was our ethnic food. You get the idea. Appleton has come a long way since I left town fifty years ago to see the world, but that's the place I came from.
