. >> sucrose, "tomlinson hill," what make you want to write that go? >> well, i grew up knowing about tomlinson hill. i've never been to tomlin sandhill, the grand father would always make, you know, we had a slave called tomlinson hill and when the slaves were freed, they loved it so much they took tomlinson as their last name. and as a seven and 8-year-old kid in dallas going through desegregation because in 1973, dallas schools were still segregated and there is a court order and so race was very much an important topic at that time in dallas. so i was aware of that as a child and the idea that there were black tomlin and that my family once held as slaves boggles my imagination. and i became an important part of my identity growing up in white, southern culture, having a family that fought in the civil war and handhelds please were part of the antebellum plantation life is a big deal. so, i unknowingly bragged about it because that was the reviewer supposed to be proud of. it wasn't until later in life with cibecue a journalist i became educated an