Mark and Nancy Tramontin

Nancy Tramontin: He came down for a visit and thought it looked like a great place to raise a family.

Mark Tramontin:  But he knew what he was getting into.  I mean he was well aware of that.  I think it’s interesting that we grew up -- kind of bless our parents -- there was never an ounce or a word of prejudice in our household ever.  Ever.  Just didn’t exist.  Now, by the same token, we weren’t familiar with a lot of Black people.  We didn’t have African Americans where we were in Michigan or in Chicago.  It wasn’t until we came to Charlottesville that we got to know some different people of different color.  But there was never -- that was not in our family’s DNA at all.  In fact, one of the things when I was thinking about this that I recall that was shocking to me is that I had a friend across the street who was my age, and I hung out with her quite a bit.  And the woman had a -- she was divorced, and had a job, and they had a maid.  And I was over there one day playing with my friend, and the woman, the maid, asked me a question, and I said, “No, mam.”  And the mother yanked me aside real quick and said, “You don’t say mam or sir to those people.”  I was really shocked.  It was an older person, I was taught it was, “Yes, mam” -- you know, “Yes, sir.”  And I was pretty young at the time, I think I was about 11 or 12.  That was the first hint of something’s wrong.  And then I remember going through my head and saying, “I don’t understand what she’s talking about.”