When I was growing up, the emotions I witnessed in my father were mostly negative – disappointment was typical, so was frustration and anger, mixed in with heaping doses of weariness…Listining to the sounds of Wes Montgomery’s guitar or Miles Davis’ trumpet reminds me of the good things about my childhood.

Her name was Maria and she was beautiful. A woman knows. That primal sense of competition kicks in and you recognize that even if you had just stepped out of the beauty salon with flawless hair and makeup, wearing a designer dress, men would turn their heads and look, not at you, but at Maria.