Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River - Softcover

Vincent Beach With Anni Beach

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1589850572 ISBN 13: 9781589850576

Publisher: Five Star Publications, Inc. Chandler, AZ, 2007

Synopsis

Vincent Beach seems an ordinary man from ordinary beginnings. Look deeper, however, and you ll discover a special human being. Vincent left his native Jamaica in 1944 and enlisted in the Royal Air Force. Yearning to be a jazz musician, he bought an old clarinet and practiced. Through his perseverance, he found his way to America and a career for 22 years as a bandsman in the U.S. Air Force. Becoming an educator, he served the children on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, and later enjoyed teaching in community college. Share the joys and woes of an ordinary man in his storied autobiography.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

His mother was Miss Rosa, his father Mas T. Their legacy was love, discipline, and aphorisms, including ...Don’t throw away your stick till you cross the river.Vincent Beach has crossed many rivers, beginning in 1944 when he left his rural Jamaican home and enlisted in the Royal Air Force. Later, when he immigrated to the United States, he had little education and even less money. What he did have, however, was a dream of becoming a jazz musician. Undeterred by the fact he had no musical training, Vincent joined the U.S. Air Force and talked his way into a 22-year career as a military bandsman.After the service, a second career as a counselor to youngsters on an isolated Navajo reservation taught him as much about himself as he taught the students about what to expect in life and how to pursue their goals. Along the way he found and lost love, and discovered love once again. He and his new wife Annie recently received the “2003 National Excellence in Parenting Award” from the National Parents’ Day Council. Their life is a testament to the ability to overcome racism.

About the Author

Vincent Beach has seen a lot in the past 82 years wars fought and peace enjoyed, racism endured and the rising hope for integration, loves found and loves lost, children born and children buried. Through it all, his mother s adages have sustained him. Don t throw away your stick till you cross the river, she often told him. It was not till years later that he grasped the full meaning behind the saying. Leaving behind his rural home in Jamaica, Vincent set out for a new life. He joined the British Royal Air Force in 1944 and ended up in Europe. In 1955, he emigrated to the United States but found it difficult to find work. Attracted to a recruiting station, Vincent was soon a member of the U.S. Air Force. It was here that he was able to pursue his lifelong dream of being a musician. For the next 22 years, he was a military bandsman. After that, he had a second career of helping Navajo children on an isolated reservation in northern Arizona. He describes himself as a common black man from ordinary beginnings. Why then did he decide to write his autobiography? I believe the stories of other people s lives are enlightening, he says. They reveal the fact that we are all part of the human condition. He and his wife Annie, who helped him prepare his manuscript, received the 2003 National Excellence in Parenting Award from the National Parents Day Council at a ceremony in Washington, DC.

About this edition

• Publisher: Five Star Publications, Inc. Chandler, AZ
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1589850572
• ISBN 13: 9781589850576
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 319
• Editor: Gary Anderson