Some Memories of North Carolina by Dipo Kalejaiye (2025)

Author’s note: “This memoir is inspired by some telephone conversations with my longtime friend, Babatunde Kayode, a resident of California, whom I affectionately refer to in the Yoruba language as eru o bodo (The River is not Afraid!). He was the ‘sounding board’ for a few of the memories recounted here, and he encouraged me to write it. I have used some fictitious names when necessary in order ‘to protect the innocent’, as the saying goes. Finally, the memoir is affectionately for my daughter, for whom I have substituted a fictitious name–Olasumbo. You are the first fruit of Lemolu, by the way of the escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.”