Letters: Mekong, Mays, Carolina Chocolate Drops
Listeners wrote in to say how much they enjoyed the beginning of Michael Sullivan's Mekong River series, how thrilled they were by Robert Siegel's interview with baseball great Willie Mays, and how the sounds of the Carolina Chocolate Drops set their toes to tapping.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
The start of this series yesterday brought some appreciative letters to our inbox.
BLOCK: We also had emails thanking us for Robert Siegel's conversation on Friday with baseball legend Willie Mays. Mays talked about being criticized by Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's color line four years before Mays joined the New York Giants. Robinson felt Mays wasn't engaged enough in the civil rights movement.
WILLIE MAYS: I went to the White House as a man, not a black man. I know Jackie had a hard time when he came in. I applaud him. I don't know if I could have done the things that he did, but, you know, what am I going to change? I can't change the world. I can live the way I live and hope that I can help people of all races all the time.
BLOCK: Pew continues: Mays obviously believed that he was just like everyone else, that he had rights, and so he acted like it. He was way ahead of his time.
T: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I found myself dancing around my kitchen with a huge smile on my face, yee-hawing and hee-hawing. This is what I want my orchestra to do. Bill Eddins happened to be the music director of the Edmonton Orchestra, way up there in Alberta, Canada. And who knows, maybe there could be a jug player in the orchestra pit sometime soon?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BLOCK: We always enjoy hearing from you. You can write to us at npr.org. Just click on contact us at the bottom of the page.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS: (Singing) Your baby ain't sweet like mine. She bake a jelly roll all the time. And when I'm feeling lonesome and blue, my baby, baby know just what to do. Yes, sir. She even call me honey. She even let me spend the money. Never has baby put me out of door. She even buy me all my clothes. I don't want to brag, just want to put you in line, your baby ain't sweet like mine. No, no.
BLOCK: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
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