Guest post with Author Nora Shalaway Carpenter
A Memory of What Helped Inspire My Writing: The Night Sky by Randy DuBurke
1966:
It was a warm, muggy night and I was four years old plopped down right in front of my Grandparents brand new black and white RCA television in the living room of their house in Tignall, Georgia. Grandma was in the kitchen cleaning up the dinner dishes. Grandpa had gone out to take care of the cows.
I had my bowl of ice cream and my note pad and pencils with me. My new favorite show was about to begin. I had seen one episode before and thought it was great! The show was about a group of people flying through space going to different worlds and meeting strange aliens and having these fantastic adventures. I loved this show!
The show started and I hunkered down and took a big spoonful of ice cream in my mouth then grabbed my note pad and a pencil. I drew, as best as I could, what I saw on the T.V. screen. The Captain was talking to the guy with the pointy ears about some trouble with the boy with the super powers who had come on the ship. This was so cool.
I drew the captain, the doctor, the boy and the starship flying through space. As the show was coming to an end I heard the back door creak open then slam shut.
Grandpa strode into the room. He towered over me as I drew. 'Well, Mr. DuBurke whatcha doin' here?'
'Drawin'.' I answered. I could feel grandpa looking over my shoulder. After a moment he said 'Mighty fine whatcha doin.' I beamed up at him and then continued drawing and watching fthe show.
Grandpa took a seat in the chair behind me and watched the rest of the show in silence. As the end credits scrolled on the screen Grandpa asked ' You like them space shows, huh?'
'Yeah' I said. Grandpa came over and knelt beside me and started to look at what I had drawn. He chuckled as he saw the captain and the other characters I had drawn. He stopped when he came to my drawing of the starship in space. He stared at the image for a moment. Grandma came to the doorway and said it was time for me to get ready for bed.
'Hold on a minute.' said Grandpa,
Before Grandma could protest Grandpa said he wanted to show me something. We went out the back of the house, the balmy night air clinging to our skin. A slight breeze fanned the tree branches of the woods beyond as Grandpa said to me 'So, Mr. DuBurke what all you like about that there show?'
I shrugged and looked at the ground. “I don't know.” I mumbled. Ciccadas chirped somwhere in the deep woods.
'Oh.' he said. I felt Grandpa staring down at me.
'Wellll.'I drawled
'I like the captain, and the guy with the pointy ears, and the space ship, and the adventures. It is so cool!'
Grandpa laughed a deep throaty laugh that seemed to shake the ground.
'See, now I knew there was somethin' about that show that set you off.'
“You like the imagination of those men who created it, right?'
I thought for a minute. I guess when you boiled it down, I did like the imagination that could bring all these weird things into the world. 'Those men who created that show do have quite an imagination and so do you or you can.' Grandpa said softly.
“Learning from those who come before you and adding to it by what you learn will help you.”
I stared at Grandpa puzzled. “What I learn?”
“From the world around you.” Grandpa spread his arms out engulfing the world. I followed the sweep of his arm and stared into the sky. A faint streak of light arced far above our heads across the night sky. I followed it and I started to wonder what strange people and worlds were out there.
ABOUT RANDY DUBURKE
Born in Washington, Georgia, Randy DuBurke has been a professional illustrator for more than twenty years. He’s done artwork for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, the New York Times, MTV Animation, and many additional entertainment companies and publishing houses. He’s the creator of the picture book The Moon Ring, which earned him a John Steptoe New Talent Award. He illustrated the graphic novels Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, which received a Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award from the Museum of Tolerance, Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, and Emanon, a companion to Wayne Shorter’s Grammy-winning jazz album of the same name. His illustrations for The Best Shot in the West, a Junior Library Guild Selection, earned him a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. He has six reproductions of fully painted comic pages concerning civil rights across the globe on permanent display at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
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