Since their arguments were so common, we did not see the exact moment when my mother’s umbrage and cross-grained wrath turned into a deadly hatred of my father. But the cycle of her impotent rage began early and there were years of fruitless interchange before my mother entered the field of fire with her own bitter reprisals. Henry Wingo believed that women should never discuss business. There were two types of southern men: those who listened to their wives and those who did not; my father had a black belt degree in turning
