I have become know by many for my interest in Questions, I self published a list, ‘Davidson Great Questions’ [see Just Questions-No Answers], that found its way into the hands of many people through the world, I am proud to say. Why questions and not answers? As a kid, I was quite the inquisitor. Even more so, when I discovered, grow folks had peculiar rules about children asking questions: About grown folk’s business.-How children got here?-Is God for real? and Why did Uncle Ed die in jail?
I worked in a country Sunoco Gas Sta ion, as a teenager. I was in charge. Several steel workers hung around all the time, having the old ‘General Store’ type conversations. The gas station did not have the pot-bellied stove, but a oil burning space heater. Most of the men had little or no former education. I latter came to appreciate why they were so full of questions[from the Deeper Southern experience as disenfranchised, living on the fringe of mainstream life in Maryland, insufficient access to information, and culturalized to being quiet and not getting too smart for their own good]. Since I was known for hitting the books quite regular, I was the object of most of their questions.. It was a honor and I never wanted to disappoint them. I kept the a dictionary, a few encyclopedias, the Almanac and old magazines around the Gas Station.
I was always the only child in the mix. This proposed some friction with my Peers, especially with my very best buddy Weme. I am nearly sixty-five years old and Weme is still my best buddy. He still lives in his grandmother’s home in my old home town, Turner Station, Maryland, just outside Baltimore City.
Weme constantly reminded me how much time I spent trying figure things out. To this day , I still do not know if he thought I wasted by time. Sometimes, he’d look at me and shake his head and say, “Why do you need to know so much?” The Weme Question has been a driving force in my life.