Crawford Robyn - A song for you: my life with Whitney Houston

In the summer of 1980 I rode my black Kabuki twenty-two-speed bike across East Orange. The phone had gotten me out of bed, but the wind in my face was waking me up. Coach Clark, my high school basketball coach, had called to tell me that she had a job for me at the East Orange Community Development center, and within minutes, I was out the door. I was starting my second year of college in the fall, and I owed it to Coach Clark to show. I raced to Main Street, the summer sun beginning to pulse in the sky.

I sped up to the glass-front building, jumped off my bike, and walked it into a dimly lit space crowded with people, tables, and chairs lined up against the walls. I found Coach Clark down the hall in the back, and she smiled, gave me a big hug, and then turned and handed me a stack of papers to distribute. Clark could have tapped anyone for the job, but she knew she could count on me.

Ive always been vain about my hair, and in those days, I would wash it and then beg my little sister, Robina, affectionately called Bina, to braid it. Other times Id set it on pink foam rollers; once I took them out, my coils would loosen, and by the third day my Afro would be amazing. It was day three, so I felt cute in my green shorts the color of grass, light green T-shirt, white Nike sneakers, and pristine white tube socks.

I walked around the room carrying a stack of camp counselor enrollment forms and clutching a bunch of pens. Then I came across a girl Id never seen before. I didnt notice her at first because she was sitting in the back against the wall. But I paused as I handed her the paperwork: She simply stopped me in my tracks.

The girl wore a red-blue-and-gray-plaid silk blouse; slim-fitting knee-length shorts; and red-striped Adidas Gazelles. She had a gold watch necklace around her neck, and her sandy brown hair was pulled back, topped by a visor emblazoned with the Red Cross logo. Her skin was peachy brown, and her eyes caught the misty light.

Whats your name? I asked.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston, she said.

I found her response humorous, different. Who gives their first, middle, and last names? I asked where she lived, and she said Doddtown, across from the McDonalds. My cousins lived right near there, and I often spent the night with them. Id worked at that very McDonalds throughout my junior year of high school. Later that day, I learned she attended an all-girls private school and was a singer. Her mother had founded the Sweet Inspirations, background singers to big stars like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, and her cousin was Dionne Warwick.