But there were years when, in search of what I thought was better, nobler things I denied these, my people, and my family. I forgot the songs they sung – and most of those songs are now dead; I erased their dialect from my tongue; I was ashamed of them and their ways of life. But now – yes, I love them; they are a part of my blood; they, with all their virtues and their faults, played a great part in forming my way of looking at life.
