Zane Parks Jr

Ancestors

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Autobiography

Autobiographical Remarks by Ralph Zane Parks Jr.

Me at One Year Old

Childhood. I was born August 3, 1946 in Miami, Florida. My father was Ralph Zane Parks, originally of Sugar Grove, Virginia, and my mother was Frances Elizabeth Goodson Parks, originally of Attalla, Alabama. I was born on a naval base and the story is that I first cried when they played taps. Dad was at sea when I was born, but my aunt Maggie (Bernice Margaret Goodson Dunson) was there to be with Mom. My grandmother Mimi (Willie May Evans Goodson) was also present.

I should say that throughout my childhood, Mimi lived with us off and on. Other times she lived with Great Aunt Irene or Aunt Maggie. I could always be confident of Mimi's love no matter what. I loved her dearly and was very deeply saddened by her death in 1969. The Ides of March is always a day of remembrance and sadness.

Dad was in the Navy and so, we moved a good bit. As a sign of this, while I was born in Miami, my brother David Douglas Parks was born in San Diego, California. That was January 26, 1952. I did not much appreciate his addition to the family.

I started school in California. From 1950, we lived in San Diego, Monterey, La Mesa. and Pacific Beach. I don't remember much of this time in my life. I do recall strange men in uniform picking me up from school one day and taking me home. I didn't understand at the time, but of course, that was the day David was born.

I didn't realize how good we had it while Dad was in the Navy until he resigned. That was in the Mid-1950s. The Navy had been sending him to Georgia Tech. Dad resigned from the Navy in 1956. He resigned because he was "called" to become a Southern Baptist minister.

In any case, Dad finished his studies at Georgia Tech at the beginning of 1957, getting a bachelors degree in industrial engineering, we moved from Decatur, Georgia to Raleigh, North Carolina and Dad began his studies at Southeastern Theological Seminary. This was devastating to me -- I had been happy in Decatur and had friends there, chief among them Richie Patsios. And as I was soon to discover, we had little money.

When we moved to Raleigh, I resolved never to try to make friends ever again. I knew that we'd just move again and I didn't want to go through the pain of that again. Of course, that resolve didn't last. I did make a few friends. Still, this was a darker period in my memory.

Dad had been promised financial help by a group of men from our church back in Georgia, the First Baptist Church of Avondale Estates. That support began to dry up over time. Dad must have become angry and frustrated by the situation, but as we do, he buried those feeling. They came out in whippings with his belt. That was never as bad, before or after.

We lived in a duplex. It has oil heating and Mom was terrified of it. She was afraid it was going to explode. She lived in terror of fires throughout her life. And then she would become frantic if I wasn't home in time. God help me if Dad had to come looking for me.

I don't remember Mimi being with us in Raleigh. That would have brightened things. I suppose she was living with Aunt Irene in Miami.

Dad graduated from the seminary with a bachelors of divinity degree at the beginning of 1960. Around the time of his graduation, he started doing some preaching, filling in for preachers going on vacation and less frequently, trial preaching. In the latter case, after the service we'd go outside while the congregation decided whether or not to call Dad as their new preacher.

As an aside, in each of these cases where Dad was preaching, the congregation was different. So, Dad used the same sermon over and over. And we heard that sermon -- "Salvation, a Journey" -- over and over. It became something of a joke in the family and we'd all groan when we learned that we were going to hear it once again.

In the middle of the school year 1960, Dad was called to Bethsaida Baptist Church, a tiny church in the country near Riverdale, Georgia. The parsonage was next door to the church. The nearest neighbors were miles away. That meant not going over to so-and-so's to play. We did have Mimi with us, which was a blessing.

I had attended the first half of the eighth grade in a junior high school in Raleigh. Now, I joined the eighth grade in high school in Riverdale. Eighth graders were called "sub-freshmen." We had apparently misled the school about my abilities and after a few weeks I was move to classes with all the smart kids. In ninth grade I was to attend yet another new school; a new junior high school had been built and we were to be its first class.

Alas, we moved again in the summer of 1961. Dad became the assistant pastor to Vic Green. Vic had been the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Avondale Estates and had been instrumental in Dad's call to the ministry. Now he was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Woodruff in Woodruff, SC.

...

I should add that vacations during my childhood meant visiting family. Sometimes during the summer and sometimes at Christmas. We would visit Mom's family in Miami -- Aunt Maggie, Mimi and Aunt Irene -- every year. We would also visit Grandpa and Grandma Parks (Henry Parks and Myrtle Hamric Parks) every year. Sometimes on the way to Grandpa and Grandma's we would stop in West Virginia and visit Uncle Junior (Henry Parks Jr.) and his family and Aunt Mildred (Mildred Lester) and her family.

...

A View of Me in 1991

Beyond childhood. I left home to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. I returned home as little as possible. ...

Retirement Being out of work during the Great Recession was grim. Fortunately Bridget and I were both in a position to take early retirement with Social Security. ...

Sources

• First-hand information.
• Family Bible of Elizabeth Goodson. In the possession of David Parks.
• Wedding Certificate for Zane Parks and Bridget Kavanagh under source images.