Our Brown and White Experiences by Lawrence Norris

The Brown and White by Lawrence Norris is a fictionalized memoir that tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School.  The book was written over decades as I grew from a young man and went through various stages of fatherhood and life.  I suppose it might be a little too rough for some sensibilities, but I think it's rather mild compared to most everything that is out there today. 

Writing a memoir, even fictionalized, is a little dangerous, because if people don't like it, you might just feel like your life was not interesting enough for readers.  That can leave you in a bad spot or maybe give a sense of depression.  I don't worry about that too much, because much of the action in the book was created by those around me.  I was the quiet guy who sat around in class and recorded in my own mind what was going on and then wrote about long afterward. 

Catholic schools had different personalities and back when I went to high school, the schools and their teachers had to be a lot tougher than the kids who came to school.  Many of the dads had fought in World War II and they were raising kids who could take a little punishment and keep coming back for more lessons. The teachers were in many cases from the same school of "child development." They wanted a better world for us, but they were not about to skip out on lessons. And the moms were very important as well, if not more important because they were around a lot more. 

Our school based a lot on the methods that had worked in past.  Although there were many changes starting to shape a new society around us, both the school and our families clung to what they knew with both hands. 

The Brown and White is a difficult book describe and write about. It has a serious setting, life in Chicago in a racially charged city with changes knocking on our door, but high school back then was mostly about humor. Even our punishments were delivered and accepted with humor. We were wanted "everything to be relevant" in those days, so it could be a little scary at times, but our families staid the course. 

As it turns out, there were many changes, but we have progressed and we came out the other side and survived. My classmates went on to raise families and contribute to society in their own ways. And the experiences we had from the Brown and White helped us along.