I did not
mean to inconvenience anybody. I simply meant to reach that
schoolhouse in time.
When, however, I found myself at the school for the first time, I
also found myself confronted with two other difficulties. In the
first place, I found that all the other children wore hats or
caps on their heads, and I had neither hat nor cap. In fact, I do
not remember that up to the time of going to school I had ever
worn any kind of covering upon my head, nor do I recall that
either I or anybody else had even thought anything about the need
of covering for my head. But, of course, when I saw how all the
other boys were dressed, I began to feel quite uncomfortable. As
usual, I put the case before my mother, and she explained to me
that she had no money with which to buy a "store hat," which was
a rather new institution at that time among the members of my
race and was considered quite the thing for young and old to own,
but that she would find a way to help me out of the difficulty.
She accordingly got two pieces of "homespun" (jeans) and sewed
them together, and I was soon the proud possessor of my first
cap.
The lesson that my mother taught me in this has always remained
with me, and I have tried as best as I could to teach it to
others. I have always felt proud, whenever I think of the
incident, that my mother had strength of character enough not to
be led into the temptation of seeming to be that which she was
not--of trying to impress my schoolmates and others with the fact
that she was able to buy me a "store hat" when she was not.
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