It is Children's Day at Mt. Sinai Holiness Church of God In Christ in Newark, New Jersey, in the Fall of 1959 and I feel as though I am being held prisoner on the first pew. I am five years old and wearing one of my favorite dresses ... On my feet I am wearing a pair of shiny black patent leather shoes, so shiny I swear I can see my reflection in them. My short sandy brown hair, parted in three pigtails and secured by three large pink and blue ribbons, is standing on end like corkscrews.
We are blessed this day with a guest speaker, Reverend Walter J. Cook ... When his sermon began three hours earlier, he promised he'd talk to us children about going to Heaven and how wonderful life will be once we got there. "You wants to go to Heaven, don't cha?" He asked. I shook my head yes. Considering the alternatives, I definitely wanted to go to Heaven. But ... that was over three hours ago. Now my head ... bobs up and down and back and forth like ping pong balls, as we desperately fight to keep our eyes open.