Blog 3877 – 07.04.2026
A Downtown Memory
Today is the Fourth of July and many of my friends in the U.S. are probably expecting a blog about our country’s 250th Anniversary. I love my country and I remember how wonderful our two hundredth birthday celebration was in 1976. It was a non-partisan event that helped bring us together after the dark and divisive days of Watergate. Gerald Ford was President then and though he had gotten to the office without ever being elected Vice President or President he was classy enough not to make it all about himself unlike the current President who thinks everything is about him and has therefore cheated us out of one of the most uniting moments in our country’s history.
Today is also the birthday of a dear friend of mine who lives in Australia, Andrew James Mitchell. Andy and I met at a small Bible college in Houston over fifty years ago. Happy birthday, Andy.
Instead of writhing about about a big birthday celebration today I would like to share a memory of a very special day in my life that took place in the spring of 1965, during the last semester of my ninth grade class at East Lake Junior High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We had junior high schools back then with seventh, eighth, and ninth grades together. Though oddly enough ninth grade was even then considered the freshman year of high school.
I shared recently about having a boyhood crush on one of the most popular girls at ELJH, Jan Rider. My favorite teacher at East Lake and ever was Don Crane, the art teacher. In addition to teaching art Mister Crane was responsible for sets and scenery and directing most all the of school plays. He encouraged me to participate and by the ninth grade I had gotten the lead male role in the spring play. Jan was the female lead and there was even supposed to be a shared kiss on stage. I was fourteen at the time and still so shy that I begged the director, Mr. C, quietly to change the scene to a hug instead. Even after all the many love poems that I had written to Jan as her secret admirer, a hug was all I thought my young heart could bear. Young love can seem so overwhelming.
Though Jan kissed several other boys during practice leading up to and after the play I got to hug her on stage in the bright lights and before a large audience. It was a crowning moment. That night a shy boy was for a brief moment a shining star and I recall walking home after the play that night with a couple of pretty girls and singing Petula Clarke’s hit song together with them, Downtown. It was a triumphal march for me that I fondly remember to this day. I still love the song.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
Petula Clark Downtown. original version
theencouragingword 