Book of Tal: Early Assorted Recollections #01

Early Assorted Recollections

I was born almost three years after what people would consider "Boomers". Thankfully, I am not a Boomer or are philosophically like one. Actually, I detest that generation. One day I may write something about generations from my view. We all have our truths and sometimes they align with THE TRUTH, but most of the time we have no clue about what truth is. As an aspiring student of history, 99% of everything we think we know - is false. There is so much I've discovered to the point that I know nothing.

So, I am a Generation X person. 

I grew up in the deepest south (Mississippi) in a place most roundly ridiculed and its people of the late 1900's and early 2000's are just good and oftentimes better human-beings than areas of greater sophistication and alleged learning. Funny thing is I haven't lived there since 1986. That is 14,029 days ago since I last laid my head down on a pillow in my parent's home. To convert that number to something useful, it is 38 years 4 months and 9 days ago. I digress. With hopefully 26.92% of my life left and having been observant and thoughtful for the other 74% of a life, I have a unique insight. Of course, we all have a unique insight. The insight tells me that GenX rulz and everyone else droolz - especially those glue-sniffing millennials.

I grew up not knowing that I was poor even though there weren't many material things. But for most of my childhood we lived on 40-acres not far from "the big city", but far enough that we had black skies at night and able to see every star created. I went to quite a few really bad schools and few good ones. Had teachers I don't remember because either they didn't make a mark, or I wasn't there long enough to receive a mark. I remember Mrs. Griggs (wasn't mean), Mrs. Rowan (was mean), and Mrs. Thompson (the devil incarnate) and she was uuuuggglllyyyyy. Mrs. Thompson was the main 3rd grade teacher. My friend Eddie Mallett and I often cut up and were general nuisances during her class. We spent time in the hallway getting paddled. We'd walk back in fighting off the smiles, but making sure the teacher didn't see. Then she threatened us with Mr. Lee who was a monster of a man. He was like 10 feet tall and when he raised the paddle and dropped it to our butts and when the paddle reentered the atmosphere it heated up and glowed red. We walked back into the classroom trying to fight off the wet stuff that was forming in our eyes. Poor Eddie got the alligator tears. It was at this point that I realized that Eddie was a wuss. Nawl, that was my boy!

Summers were fun. Had my two brothers, Harold and William. They were four and five years younger, respectively. I'll speak of them from time-to-time. They were part of my story, but other's stories aren't mine to tell. But if I'm there on the scene - it's our story; therefore, fair game. Sorry Harold! Unfortunately, the South which sometimes Mississippi belongs to, many things are black and white. Some things cannot be told without providing the distinction. We didn't live near any white kids, but lived near a small community of black folks, most of who were related to this old guy named A.C. He had a last name, but I'll leave that out and his first name was Mr. A.C. He my dad spent a lot of time talking redneck things - farming, trucks, farming, and mostly those things that bored me to death.

Some of my best memories were playing with those kids. We were FOREVER racing, playing marbles, and shooting a basketball through an old tire rim. Yes, we were tire rim poor. These kids were always challenging each other, and it was just a culture that was different than the white kids that I had ever been around. If you got challenged, you took that challenge or you were a sissy. This one day a girl challenged me. Being the young chauvinist that I was, I was clowning and took it as a joke. If I didn't take the challenge, there's the sissy thing or possible even being called a chicken. Girlfriend got off fast and quickly gained a good 5-foot lead. I had work for that win - which was almost not a win. Those boys and girls would have tormented me forever if I had lost. For your information, there were many a boy that she DID beat. I think they left the country. I was skinny, could run like the wind, and would have smoked Forest Gump.

Some of the best food that I ate was up that hill to the left of our property. There was a sense of the term "it takes a village to raise a child". I credit Hillary Clinton - argh, I just threw up in my mouth. This was in full force there. Someone's mom, aunt, or grandma cooked enough food for all the kids. There might had been 10-15 kids out there at play. I was one of them. One thing for certain, if it was meat, you did not ask what it was if you didn't recognize it. There was definitely rabbit, squirrel, snake, turtle, eel and of course normal things like chicken. Mostly chicken or some type of fowl was on the menu. The menu consisted of - you eat it OR you don't. I was treated just like any of the other children. I think they liked me. We were country kids - black and white.

A lot is made of relationships of different people with different melanin. In the South, in Mississippi no less, we had it figured out better that much of the rest of the country at that time. Sadly, at school in town, it was a different story. Most of those kids were not country kids. They were small town kids and just did not have the same raising as the country kids. The country kids had little to nothing, but the town kids had even less than nothing. Want is often the impetus to paths undesired.

Maybe our problems are less rural and are more urban.