"Extraordinary, Ordinary People"

This memoir by Condoleezza Rice gives the reader an inside look at her extraordinary parents and the life they provided for her. She admits that her parents made a lot of sacrifices to give her all the advantages and she did have a lot of them. On the other hand, she did not waste those advantages as she became an accomplished ice skater, pianist, tennis player, and much more. She also started school at a young age and excelled and graduated early from college going on to complete her master's and her doctorate. She was very close to her parents -- both were educators plus her father was a Presbyterian minister. She gained a love of music from her mother and a love of sports from her father. I have to admit I did get bogged down in all her degrees and trying to understand what she studied and her various positions in the government. What I did get is that she is brilliant and not afraid to stand up for what she believes.

The most interesting part of this memoir for me was Condi's relationship with her parents and the events around the nation and in Birmingham (where she lived at the time) leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the impact the passage of that bill had on her life personally.

Condi, who is eleven years younger than me, grew up in a middle class black neighborhood in Birmingham. I grew up in a small town in southern Kansas and I didn't realize until I was almost grown that this town had a "Sunset Law" -- meaning no blacks were allowed to be in town after sunset. It wasn't until my brother wanted to bring home a fellow college student from Africa that I learned the truth -- The friend had to be housed with a family from our church who lived in the country.

So...my world was far different than the world Condi grew up in. I was sheltered and naive growing up in a pretty "artificial" environment compared to the real -- and sometimes harsh -- world that Condi lived in.

My oldest daughter was just a few weeks old when President Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963 while my sailor husband was on a six month tour of duty in the Western Pacific. That assassination is one of the first events that really touched my life as an adult. Although I don't remember watching a lot of TV in those days, I did keep it on at that time so I was constantly aware of the latest news.

However, in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed -- a momentous moment in Condi's life -- I was barely aware of the impact of this act. I had been raised in a world where I had no contact with blacks except when I was shopping in Wichita or Hutchinson with my mother and grandmother. My mother taught me to treat everyone with respect and not to use words like "nigger" so, when I began working with a black woman in Wichita in the late 1960's, I saw her as just another co-worker and had no clue that her life might be a lot different than mine. In retrospect, I realize how very naive I was about the way of the world.

As I read this memoir, I realized how different my world had been and I admired even more the sacrifices Condi's parents made to give her such a great life as well as her efforts to take full advantage of those opportunities. I highly recommend this biography!

pazt