Son of a schoolteacher

My mother's name is Versa Coats. Used to be Versa Johnson when I was a child. LOL




For most people who haven't met my mother, she was the picture of education perfection. For example, she would correct our speech at the dinner table during ANY meal.



She was a very regimented person, but she had a knack for (1) occupying your time by making you think and (2) always being there for you when you needed it.



I always say that my mother gave my life structure and organization and my grandfather (e.g. Papa) is the one who taught me just about everything I know to survive.

My mother always wanted me to be "more". She saw things in me that I didn't/couldn't see in myself, BUT ... she didn't see what I saw.

That's where our conflict arose. From very young, I began to have visions of the future. She would support my interests, but begrudingly if they didn't fit her ultimate "plan" for my future. I don't blame her though, she was operating from her reality.

When I was 6 years old, for Christmas, I asked my mother for a computer. I mean ... this was in 1979 and I was 6 years old! Noone had a computer! This was when the Atari 400 computer came out onto the market. This was before the Blu-Ray, before the DVD, before the CD, before the hard floppy disk, before the black flexible floppy disk; this computer had a tape cassette player.

I opened it up Christmas morning and read the books that came along with it about how to program BASIC and started writing little programs. First, I would make it say, "Hello" on the screen. Now, to make it do this, I had to write the program, press the Record and Play buttons on the cassette player and then type "SAVE" on the keyboard.

Then, to run the program, I had to press the Play button and type "RUN". Looking back ... that was crazy! And ... a lot of work for a 6 year old! But, that's how I learned.

Anyways, my mother bought me that computer and that launched me into a whole new reality. For the next 30 years, I've programmed computers all over the world.

My mother also was very tight on giving compliments or affection, but when I came back from college and would go and visit her at her schools where she was the principal, all of the teachers and administrators knew me. Whenever I would come back in town from a foreign country that I was living in, they would be like, "Oh ... you're the one. You're the Morehouse Man. You're the genius! You're the one that speaks 3 languages."

Then ... I understood in the reflection of her peers how much my mother loved and supported me. It took a LONG time, but ... I finally understood.

I love you mom! I wish I would have told you more often. :-(