The New Seeds
I was in a youth group at my father's church when I was 12. We used to go it the song at other churches. Our singing group was called the New Seeds. I had fun being in the group. Sometimes we would sing our songs to popular music. Most of the kids in the group were white Southern Appalachians, but we had two black siblings Stanley and Tujuanda whom everyone in the group loved. I remember when we did a rendition of Elton John's Benny and the Jets with Stanley as the lead singer. We called it Stanley and the Jets.
On one occasion, the group went out to sing at a church in the suburbs. They usually went out to sing in the rich churches. Kind of like a cultural enrichment for the rich kids. When they came back, they gleefully told me that they met a girl there who looked just like me. I didn't say anything about it to them, but I was humiliated. I was kind of short with long hair and I felt insecure about my masculinity. I thought about that for a long time afterward. I didn't understand why it was fun for them to say that to me, but it really hurt.