Pegasus is a firsthand account of a young black boy who becomes a thirteen-year old Mobilgas filling station attendant in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1954. The book describes the amazing education, challenges and opportunities provided by the station's white proprietors, a father and son, who basically became the boy's surrogate grandfather and father. It is a unique autobiographical journey of a life before, during and after the 1957 Little Rock Integration Crisis. The author's experiences cover a wide range of emotion and passion during his first 21 years of life, including sex, love, violence, humility, humanity and racism. The filling station is the unusual setting that is the center of the boy's universe. It describes the interesting mix of cars, characters and circumstances the young attendant encountered daily at the filling station. This narrative illustrates the passion, both love and hate, exhibited on both sides of the color line.
About the Author: The author, Eddie Joe Washington, was born 3 April 1941, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and enlisted in the United States Army 18 July 1962 and served his entire career in Military Intelligence. His life during this 21 year period is described in detail in this book. The military training and assignments, formal college education, world-wide travel and other personal experiences, spanning military and civilian careers, helped the author present Pegasus in context. The author was especially enlightened by the opportunity to live outside the United States, in Germany and Turkey for over ten years, which gave him an objective look at his homeland. Washington's tour of duty, in the summer of 1971, was a three year stint at Fort Meade, Maryland, where he met his fiancée, Mary Moses. At the National Cryptologic School, he was the Chief Instructor for the Basic Signals Intelligence Course where he taught the physics of electromagnetic wave propagation, interception, and analysis. He lived in Laurel, Maryland, which is 18 miles from both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. En route to Germany in June 1977, Washington married his fiancée, Mary Moses. Then Eddie reported to duty at Idar Oberstein, (near Baumholder) Germany, where he served as an Emanations Analysis Technician and Unit Training Coordinator. The author and his wife travelled extensively through Europe including the countries of Germany, England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain, which included watching a bull fight. But the highlight of this period for Mary and Eddie was their vacation to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. He also earned a Master of Science Degree in Business Administration from Boston University. From 1984 to 2013, Eddie Washington worked for defense contractor, which primarily supports Department of Defense customers nationwide. During his career there, Eddie grew from staff member to project manager to program manager and finally to subcontracts manager. He was employed for 29 years and took taken advantage of many interesting opportunities, including travel to Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii and Spain. He and his wife live in Southern Maryland and have three grown sons, Duane, Edward and Eric. Eddie plans to write more books and short stories.