Tuesday, April 24, 2012
My "America's Got Talent" Audition
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The Capitol
Monday, April 16, 2012
My Little World
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Birds and The B String
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Don't Lock The Door
Monday, April 9, 2012
Mario
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Food Fights
David doesn't eat pork. One morning David was at the house for breakfast. Eggs, grits, bacon, toast and scrapple. Nothing like the smell of bacon in the morning. This particular morning, even David couldn't resist the smell. There were only two pieces left. David gave in, he snatched them before Greg could get them.
Taste buds can have an amazing effect on ones language.
Friday, April 6, 2012
An Urban Mom In Upstate NY
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Love and Fear
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Rite of Passage
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Window Shopping
Everything else was fun.
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Simple Things
Most of the fights that would happen in school would be over dumb stuff. Usually saying something about someone's mom. Some things would be so outrageous, you'd wonder why someone would get upset over it. "Yo man, your mom is so old she farts dust". That's all it took. Now there's a rumble in the class. You're sent to the principles office, because 'you' threw the first punch.
Your mom is called in. "What happened!!?? What happened boy!!?? "Mom, he said you were so old you fart dust." In a different world she would have laughed it off, because she wasn't that old and of course no one farts dust. But… "What?? Who said that? Tell me his name! Tell me his name Mickey!" Now I'm dragged to his house. His grandmother answers the door, Oops mistake, it's his mother. Then he comes to the door. She chews him out. right in front of his grandma, I mean mom. He and I are both embarrassed. And there I was choking from some plume in the air.
The next day in school. "Yo man, your mom flips out at the drop of a hat." That's all it took…
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Deacon Blues
Church wasn't a big part of our family life when we were growing up . We'd go occasionally, but Easter was a must. We kids had it made. For Easter we'd get new clothes. We were growing kids, so for a while it must have been new clothes every year. We'd make sure that whatever church we went to, we'd walk around the block a few times before entering, just so we could parade our cool duds. Along with everybody else I should add.
There's no point in my trying to discuss inner city finances and logic, I really don't know why my folks, being poor and all, would spend big bucks on our fine clothes. Probably to convince the other poor folks that we weren't poor. I don't know, but I DO know that we looked good.
I can only think of a few church moments:
For a very brief time my sister and I went to vacation bible school. While there, I didn't know what they were talking about, but the lunches were great.
Eventually I'd find myself hanging around and thinking, "Man, enough of this LAWD business, just give me a g** d**n sandwich." Oops my apologies, that doesn't sound like a kid, does it? Let me rephrase that… "Gee whiz, enough of this lord stuff, just hand me a sandwich please." Vacation bible school didn't last long.
The other two church moments were kind of traumatic.
For another brief time we went to this corner church. It was a good walk away from our house. It was Easter of course. One great thing about Easter, was being handed chocolate and jelly beans. This was a little church and being Easter Sunday, it was packed. It was also a LOUD church. The organist and the drummer would be tearing it up in there. As the music would get louder some ladies sitting near us would start "feeling the spirit". They'd jump up, they're hands would be flying around and they'd be muttering some gibberish. My brother and I would do all we could to not laugh, but we couldn't help it. What's wrong with these old ladies? It was too funny. It stopped being funny when our mom jumped up and started hopping around and muttering gibberish. Then we wanted to get the hell out of there. I'm not sure if she was feeling the spirit or was competing with the other ladies. It was a terrifying sight. We never went back.
My most traumatic church experience was getting baptized. One evening my mom asked me if I wanted to be baptized. It really wasn't a question because she wouldn't let me say no. I don't think we knew what kind of church it was. It was just a church. A big church. The service took place in the evening. We didn't know anybody in the church, and until that evening had never set foot in the place, but Mickey's getting baptized.
"Some deacons are going to escort you to that large pool of water and the guy in the pool is going to grab your head and push you under the water." What??!!! What the heck is a deacon? It sounds like a space alien or some nut wearing a vulture suit. I had no choice but to go through with it. The congregation was singing a mournful version of 'Wade In The Water'. Slow and creepy. Hearing this, all I could imagine were those mournful black male faces that you would see in a 1960's sci-fi flick whenever someone would use the word 'freedom' in a monologue. The camera zooms in. Mournful black male faces. Wade In The Water. DEACONS!
There I was with the Deacon boss. He grabbed my head and pushed me under.
We never went back.