For many years beginning in 1964, Daddy and Charlie Moore were business partners at the City Barber Shop (torn down many years ago) across from the Douglas County Courthouse. I attended Douglas County Schools up until the beginning of my senior year.
In 1971, when walk-outs and sit-ins were the most popular forms of peaceful protest, my friends and classmates secretly planned a walk-out to march to the courthouse lawn for a sit-in against US participation in the Vietnam War.
How Daddy found out about this the day before to this day, I don’t know. That night, he told me in no uncertain terms, if he saw me in the crowd at the courthouse the next day, he’d walk across and give me a whuppin’ right in front of everybody.
That was the end of my high school high school activist career.
To be fair, as an adult, I know that Daddy and Charlie were businessmen and had clients all across the political spectrum. Daddy couldn’t risk my actions alienating ANY of their customers with what would probably be (and was!) front page coverage in the local paper.
Since I was a minor and under his roof, I respected that even if I was disappointed. To make things worse, I felt like a chicken because I was too scared to go with the other kids who did end up having a very ineffective walk-out from afternoon classes. The war continued for a few more years ending in 1975.
