Family, 1970

This is a 1970 ad for Esoterica skin creme. But let's set that aside for now and look at the picture of family. Mom and Dad are salt-of-the-earth, church-going Baptists. I bet he prefers to be called "Father", even by his wife. He is a supervisor at work; and his wife may be a teacher, but she is certainly on the Mothers Board at church. They seem old, but they are not yet 50. In fact, the mother is probably only 45. They are proud of their daughter, who is in her first year at Spelman.

But look at Junior, there on the right. He oughta to be in college, but he's not. Drifting. Borrowing money from Mama because Dad stopped speaking to him after the big fight in 1969. Dad tried to get him a good gig down at the job--even pulled some strings to do it--but did Junior follow up? No.

Mama prayed for him. She never gave up. And sometime around 1977, Junior started getting his bag together. He went to school, got a job and later became a minster at the church. Mama's prayers got answered.