My Father's House
Cephas, Saundra

SPEAKER: First off I'd like to thank you for telling us your story. If you'd like to, could you give us a little background on yourself?

SAUNDRA: Yes, my name is Saundra C. Cephas, my friends call me Sandi and I actually work for Ohio State University in this particular location. I worked for the Ohio Commission on African American Males and we were a state agency but now we're part of the university but our primary mission is to promote and create strategies to help African American males realize positive outcomes for their lives.

SPEAKER: Interesting, so I know we're all part of English 367.03 class which deals with the Digital Archives of Literacy Narratives.

SAUNDRA: Yes.

SPEAKER: What's your take on the class so far?

SAUNDRA: You know, I have been really excited about the class and what I have been experiencing has almost been like someone, you know, pricking me and saying, "remember when, remember when," because listening to others tell their stories I begin to remember how literacy was a very important part of my life. It was my father, actually, who began generating that interest in me and I had totally forgot about that - my dad has been gone now since 2000 - but when we were coming up - he was a career Air Force officer - but when we were coming up he brought the, I think it was the Encyclopedia Britannica I think it was back then and this was like back in the 60's at that time and as a part of the collection after you purchase so many of the volumes you would get something called "child craft" and so I had a whole set of child craft books and they were like craft works but they also had it where scientific basis too so you could do experiments and things like that. He always felt that education was very, very important and he was not one who did a lot of reading, he didn't read to me or anything that was my mom but he made sure that we kept our focus on our education. So I had totally forgot about that part of growing up so that was really nice for me but I've always been an avid reader, there's like seven and ten years between me and my siblings to for a long time I was like an only child and so I would spend a lot of time by myself so I got into reading and as I got older I noticed how different genres - is that pronounced right? Genres I would gravitate to, so in the early stages when I was reading I was reading just anything I could get my hand on, anything that was fun, I mean I was reading comic books, just about anything. Then I found that - I started reading romance novels and when I got to my teens and I started babysitting, I had a cousin that I used to babysit for and she kept these books that was kind of hidden in her bedroom but somehow I found them and they were kind of steamy romance books.

SPEAKER: Oh I see.

SAUNDRA: But I kind of got into that for a little period there but from there I went to horror and just tonight when we were looking at the narratives and the young man was talking about Stephen King and that brought it back again because I was an avid Stephen King reader and I read like everything. I would wait for the next book to come out and I stayed with that for a long period of time. Now in between I would read Jeffrey Archer because I think the first book of his was "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less" and the way his style of writing just really spoke to me and I started trying to find everything that he had written and then I was just across the border because I was reading "Hollywood Wives", you know, Jackie Collins - I cannot remember the name of the executive producer out in Hollywood who did all of the shows out there but I think he wrote "Once is Not Enough" but I was a big follower of his writing. Then, as I got older, I got saved - I'm a minister - and I started to kind of pull away from a lot of the fiction works because I was spending a lot of time studying and reading books, you know, and I spent a lot of the time with the Bible and reading Christian types of stories and I did fall in love with the "Left Behind" series; read all of them, I've got them all and I may be missing one of them but I'm pretty sure that I've read all of them and just have never lost that love for reading. Probably the only thing that has interrupted my continual of reading - I mean I was one of those readers, I hate to say it and I know this goes out on the internet so any police officer out there turn your heads, I would read when I'm driving [laughing] I would read when I'm walking down the street, you know, I could read and not bump into anybody. I could read and not miss a step but when I really got into books I could just be absorbed until I finished that story and when I got married, my husband he started feeling a little like I wasn't paying him enough attention because if I started reading and then he would say something and then I didn't hear him, he would always tell me that once I got my nose in a book that I was just oblivious to everything. So I kind of pulled back a little bit, you know, I knew that I wasn't the only one in the house anymore but I have always, always loved reading and I just think that it's a lifelong passion and I will probably be reading a book sitting in the old folk's home. [laughing]

SPEAKER: [laughing] Right. That's very interesting. I know you brought up a lot of books that you've read; is there anything in particular that you would say is your favorite book or favorite series that you just think is above all?

SAUNDRA: Above all, oh boy... You know, besides the "Left Behind" series and they really have taken - I cannot think of the two authors...

SPEAKER: From "Left Behind"?

SAUNDRA: Yeah. 

SPEAKER: Umm, Jerry B. Jenkins and...

SAUNDRA: Yeah, Tim Lahaye. I even started reading some of his other books outside of the series because I just like how he writes. But I would say besides that - Stephen King, I have to say Stephen King probably was my favorite writer but for some reason once I started getting into the "Left Behind" series I went back to pick up one of his later books because I had kind of - there was a gap there because I was reading everything and there was a gap and I had to go back and was like, "oh wow, you mean I've missed two books?" And I would go back and try to read them and I could not get through them. I'm not sure, I guess my thoughts have changed but I would say across my adult years those are probably are - and they are probably opposite ends of the spectrum - but those are probably my two best writers.

SPEAKER: And you still read a lot today right? 

SAUNDRA: Not as much as I would like to and taking this class really makes me realize how much time has gone by since I've actually picked up a book to read just for the fun of reading it. So I think that this class is going to really help me find or reacquaint myself with my love of reading. 

SPEAKER: Right, I agree too, I think everyone in this class has benefited from that. But again thank you for sharing your story.

SAUNDRA: Well thank you.

SPEAKER: Thanks a lot.

SAUNDRA: Ok.