Life Lessons from My Father is a presentation of sayings that my father used as he raised the three of us in Mud Town, Topeka's own black ghetto. The sayings were designed to provide us with the personal and social skills that he understood were required for kids like us to function comfortably-individually and publicly. He worked, grounding each of us in our own self-esteem. He lived to see the effect of his efforts, and he was pleased.