Sidewalk Tales - Arlene Rogers Wilhite

Sidewalk Tales is a compilations of seventeen short stories about events that happened in my life and were centered around happening on sidewalks. I always wanted to write about my life story because I felt that I could help someone who might have gone through some of the hardships I did and to share the joys I had as a child and student coming up in the streets and schools of Los Angeles California. This book could have been called porch tales or school tales and even life's tales; but Side walk Tales came about as I walk along the sidewalks of San Bernardino, California, and stumped my toe on a rock that lie on a sidewalk pane. I noticed names carved in the cement and became interested in what those names meant. Why would anyone write their names in cement, particularly across from the San Bernardino train station? And as my mind began to create stories about those names, I began to wonder about the many times. Something had happened to me on a sidewalk, and I remember saying if only sidewalks could talk (like if the fly on the walk could talk), what stories could be told, and hence the title of my book came to life.

What made this slab of cement even more exciting to me is when I mentioned it to one of my step-daughters and found out that she and her sister knew the guys whose names were engraved in that cement. I knew then it was a sign for me to sit down and write my book. I had found my approach because I didn't want to write an autobiography or a wellness book, but I wanted to write about my life in a way that was for anyone to understand and with the hopes that it would heal someone. This book has been healing for me as a writer who experienced growth from each story held deep within me, but I knew it was only through telling my stories would that my healing would come, a self-healing with a spiritual guidance of some sort; and I hope that it is a portal to someone else's wellness for whatever reason is needed.