One of the recurring themes Mama has tried to instill in my life is how to treat people. Kindness, of course, is tantamount. Saying ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ along with other pleasantries should always be offered. And maybe even more importantly, was Mama’s preaching about how people should not be used. Perhaps the reason that lesson was so essential to Mama was it was something she learned firsthand when she was a child. Mama was enjoying a bag of animal crackers one day, something she probably was just tickled that my uncle, Bobby, hadn’t hoodwinked her out of. His little cunning self normally tricked her into paying him for something she already owned outright.