Diane told me this piece (written a couple weeks ago when we were in Indiana) belongs on a drugstore shelf between Lunesta and Ambien. <\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
Evansville is a month ahead of our weather and my walks take me past blooming azaleas, dogwoods and Crayola green grass. Tuesday morning Peter and I stopped at Pennylane for coffee and then drove to the Ohio River, that wide swath of always muddy-looking water. We usually approach the river from the banks near the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science where you can see for miles up or downstream. Yeah, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good place to watch thunderstorms approach, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dumb enough to do so.<\/p>\n
This time I drove Peter south along the river past the local horse race track and down under the two bridges which connect Indiana to Kentucky. Also past what Jeffro refers to as the Meth Labs, but which Travis more accurately describes as River Camps. To get where I was headed, we had to ignore various Private Keep Out!, Private Road! and Stop Now! signs. I figured those were for in-staters. <\/p>\n
This is not the prettiest view of the river \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the gravely roads are littered with trash, the banks are overgrown, and that working river feeling is all but gone. We climbed out of my truck and walked past those bridges to a pond created by the river. As we watched a gray-haired man in a gray row boat, on the far shore, disentangle his fishing line from a bush an orange bobber arced and plopped into the water right in front of us. <\/p>\n
Startled, we looked to our left and hidden by the steep bank of the pond was a young guy dressed in black. He scaled the bank to see who we were, and maybe to protect his toy terrier-looking dog who now sniffed at our feet.<\/p>\n
Peter said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hi.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The fisherman was about my height with black braids, which dropped from his hat and framed his angular face. His smile revealed three gold front teeth. Not normal-sized teeth but scale model ski slopes, and not just gold, but strike-it-rich shiny gold set off by his Arabica Bean colored skin. <\/p>\n
Ronald moved to Kentucky from New Orleans where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost his home and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153some family members\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when Katrina hit. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know you got to roll wit it, you got to adapt to it. The Lord don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do things for mysterious reasons, he does them for a reason. I got my two daughters, my dog, my wife and my fishing pole and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m good to go. The world is the same no matter where you go. If you analyze it, It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all roads and buildings and trees. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about how you live your life, if you know what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to live mine to the best of my ability, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you break it down that way, I guess you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peter said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all how you live your life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
If you think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a blabber, you should see Peter who can talk the bark off a tree. Together we make deadly duo mining information from unsuspecting \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and always willing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c strangers. This time, though, we restrained ourselves. Or Peter restrained himself. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to ask you a really stupid question. Okay, I can see you laughing so maybe I asked it already. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thing. Peter and I used to live down here but we moved away. This is about as far south as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been and what I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand is the accent thing. You drive through Georgia and Alabama and find people hard to understand because their drawl is so pronounced, but when you get to New Orleans it goes away?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It all comes from how long you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been there and \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 .\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 Or are you talking to me differently because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m white?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re white or black. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m intelligent. I have a high school education.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean any harm\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 .\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like this. If I spoke to you like I talk in New Orleans you probably wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to understand me. You might pick up on a few words.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re accommodating me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I get that. But you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have an accent. The people around here have more of an accent than you do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just put it this way. When you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re growing up and In the process of growing up where a conversation needs an accent you add one, and you use the knowledge from which you learn. If you use the language they can understand you can comprehend a lot better. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna leave it like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I knew Peter was thinking \u00e2\u20ac\u009dDon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind my brother, he loves foot-in-the-mouth questions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/i> and Ronald seemed to read his thoughts. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like that. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thirty-two years old, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not nineteen no more, so no sense of talking to people with that kind of language. I want people to hear and understand what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that way at nineteen. Now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a job. I like to be heard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What are you doing these days.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Truck driving. I have a CPR license. I do some construction. I like to drive trucks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You like to be on the road?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peter asked<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not the road so much. I like trucks. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only five feet seven and when I get out of a truck \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power in that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power in having a job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You got that right.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to go, but it was good to meet you. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry about what happened to your home.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right, man. The Lord did me a favor getting me out of New Orleans. Down there you can get into trouble and get yourself killed in a heartbeat.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Diane told me this piece (written a couple weeks ago when we were in Indiana) belongs on a drugstore shelf between Lunesta and Ambien. **** Evansville is a month ahead of our weather and my walks take me past blooming … Continue reading