"New Hat" Acrylic on paper. Copyright 2012 Totsymae
I have to admit, I was a nosy child coming up. There were so many interesting things going on around me but nothing I was involved in. Like, I’d've really liked to have gone to hear Richard Pryor in concert when my mom and aunts went. I was already sneaking and listening to the recordings. I was also sneaking to read those romance magazines. I was deeply enthralled to learn about this kinda adult entertainment but what else was a twelve year old kid supposed to do on a Friday and Saturday night? Yeah, I had books but I’d read them all.
Even though my sister and me were six years apart, we found us some shenanigans to get into, aside from sniffing chair seats. Folks, we were magnets for foolishness. I took calculated risks, whereas Sister didn’t care. Trouble simply fell where it may with her. There was an ‘uncle’ who stayed with us at one time and he had the funniest shit to happen in his life. He should be blogging himself but since he’s not, I’m gonna share a little story with y’all.
This story also involved a girl cousin who spent a good deal of time with us every summer. She was five years younger than me. She and that sister of mine were little forces to be reckoned with. To this very day, I don’t think that Uncle completely knew how much.
When Cousin came over, we’d play church and record it. Oh folks, we cut up something awful in that pretend church too. Cousin was the preacher and Sister and me were the congregation. If I could share it with you today, I would. You’d so enjoy these little childhood antics ’cause we also played celebrity singers. We had no inhibitions and the more we listened over those recordings, the more encouraged we were to cut up.
One such antic we found ourselves into, we couldn’t record. Matter of fact, I was late getting into the game. Most times, I always was when it came to those two. I guess they thought I would tell, me being older and all but all I wanted was to be a part of the nonsense. That very foolishness we were trying to get into on one such occasion was watching Uncle in the bathroom.
There was a tiny hole in the bathroom door and you could see straight in there at him taking care of whatever business he was tending. Sister was the luckiest of the three of us. She got to see everything. By the time Cousin and me were up for our turn to see Uncle’s peter, he’d blocked our view by opening the linen closet inside the bathroom. Damn! We were pissed!
My mom and her sisters had a slick way of keeping us younguns outta their business too. They’d go to speaking Pig Latin. Were good at it too but I figured out some words. They were some brain twisters and I can’t say I ever became fluent, even after checking out a book at the local library. Oh, I was ambitious, folks!
Anybody figured out the title of this post? Think Richard Pryor movies.
I'm an artist who's writing,mothering, blogging and doing a few other things under the sun. I buy toilet paper 99.9% of every trip I make to the grocery store. I'm a people watcher, so I know you're here but drop me a line anyway.
