EXCITEMENT FILLED US ON THE DAY OF THE PARTY. Mena had purchased new clothes for the three of us because we would attend the party too. Even then, she was exhibiting signs of the fashionista she would become later in life as our financial picture improved. She dressed Malcolm and BB in little boy versions of the popular suit with fitted legs that made them resemble mini Temptations…

IN APRIL OF 1968, I LIVED IN LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, with my mother and two brothers. Von had been sent to Vietnam after he left Germany, so Mena returned to Arkansas and found an apartment in the projects. We didn’t know it, but we were there on the first of what would become a new typical holding pattern for us. The U.S. Army may have drafted Von, but he would voluntarily make it his career. As such, we would spend the next ten years moving from pillar to post…