#648 The Lesson- Toni Cade Bambara

#648 The Lesson- Toni Cade Bambara

“Back in the days when everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish me and Sugar were the only ones just right, this lady moved on our block with nappy hair proper speech and no makeup. And quite naturally we laughed at her.”

That woman ended up being Miss Moore, a strange woman to the neighborhood but trusted enough to be allowed to teach the children some things. On a field trip they all went to F.A.O. Schwartz to marvel at the toys and gawk at the outrageous prices. She let the children imagine how long it would take to save that much money, how the price of one toy could feed a family in their community for a year, etc.

It was a duel lesson of how the world is not fair and how we are a product of our environment. Seeing these things could help us change these things, or at least not fall victim to the effects they have over us.

“Where we are is who we are…but it doesn’t always have to be that way.”

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#620 Talkin Bout Sonny- Toni Cade Bambara

#620 Talkin Bout Sonny- Toni Cade Bambara

Betty and Delauney are sitting at a  bar talking about Sonny. Sonny just killed his wife and didn’t seem all that upset about it. His only response was “Something came over me.” Betty was appalled by the act and his reaction, but Delauney wouldn’t make a judgment saying that maybe he understood getting that angry feeling.

“I can wake up, not thinking anything in particular, and all of a sudden it’s on me. A cloud of evil. A fit of nastiness takes over. Next thing you know I’m doing dirty to everybody and giving out to the malevolent looks…Like sometimes, I just hate all people, that’s all.”

Betty starts to get worried that she is with an insensitive man that can let something so horrible go without being upset by it. Then she realizes maybe she isn’t the purest flower in in the vase: “They weren’t my kids for crying out loud. He wasn’t my father. And I wasn’t Florence Nightingale.”

The argument goes on, and I’m pretty sure he lost her—as he loses the bartender and the reader—when he suggests that maybe the murdered woman deserved it.

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27

#592 Playin With Punjab- Toni Cade Bambara

#592 Playin With Punjab- Toni Cade Bambara

There are different kinds of leaders in the neighborhood. There are those that get elected to public office and those that you just know are in charge. Punjab is the latter type of leader. It takes a certain type of stupid to mess with a man like that.

“First of all, you don’t play with Punjab. The man’s got no sense of humor. On top of that, he’s six-feet-something and solid hard.”

I doesn’t matter who gets elected or appointed to represent that district, they will hear from the real leader, one way or the other. 

Rating: 7-6-7-7 Total= 27

#557 Happy Birthday- Toni Cade Bambara

#557 Happy Birthday- Toni Cade Bambara

It’s Ollie’s birthday. She woke up early and excited, but there was nobody there or awake or sober enough to remember. She takes a trip around the neighborhood but she cat even get anyone to talk to her, the big boys are even too lazy to make fun of her.

“You should never have a birthday in the summertime...cause nobody’s around to wish you happy birthday or throw you a party.”

“Everyone was either at camp or at work or was sleeping like the boys on the roof or dead or just plain gone off.”

Poor Ollie! Happy Birthday.

Rating: 7-6-7-6 Total= 26

#529 Mississippi Ham Rider- Toni Cade Bambara

#529 Mississippi Ham Rider- Toni Cade Bambara

Mississippi Ham Rider is an old southern bluesman, long forgotten by most of the world. Record executives from New York have come calling to bring him north to record some of his songs. They are trying to revive some of this old music for a collection, included in the records are the old blues stories:

“The payoffs, the bribes, bargains and deals, interviews in jail cells, drug wards, wino bins.” (seems like these could all be names of bands...Ha!)

Ham Rider is quite a character: “He’s quite a sketch—jackboots, the original War-one bespoke overcoat, razor scar, gravel voice and a personality to match.”

There is a cultural divide here. White-Black, Rich-Poor, Old-New, North-South—the oldies, but goodies. Trying to hold on to the past in modern terms always seems false:

“Ole Ham Rider besieged by well-dressed coffee drinkers wanting his opinion on Miles Davis and Malcolm X.”

But, as long as there’s a deal to be made, there’s a deal to be made—as long as you can take it.

Rating: 7-8-7-7 Total= 29

#494 The Hammer Man- Toni Cade Bambara

#494 The Hammer Man- Toni Cade Bambara

It is a violent world. The narrator, a school girl, says something mean and unwise to Manny, a big oaf that carries a hammer in his bag and likely is mentally unstable.

“Manny was supposed to be crazy. That was his story. To say you were bad put some people off. But to say you were crazy, you were officially not to be messed with.”

Manny doesn’t care that she’s just a girl, so now, he’s holding vigil outside her house for days ready to kill her when she comes back out. In a predictable but still crazy escalation, the mothers get in a fight because Manny’s mom is almost as crazy as he is; the girls father smashes Manny’s brother’s head into a mail box, Manny’s uncle threatens her father—and somehow Manny falls off the roof, ending the affair.

I guess you could chalk all that up to “it is a violent world”, but later on the girl imagines a world—not far from this one—that is much more violent and much more senseless.

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#473 Raymond’s Run- Toni Cade Bambara

#473 Raymond’s Run- Toni Cade Bambara

It’s May Day and Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker, the pride of 151^st street, is ready to win another race, she is the fastest runner in the neighborhood, except her father (don’t tell anybody).

She is a tough girl, with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. “I’m ready to fight, cause like I said I don’t feature a whole lot of chit-chat, I much prefer to just knock you down right from the jump and save everybody a lotta precious time.”

Besides running, her other purpose in life is to take care of her bigger brother, Raymond who is a little slow. On race day, Raymond not only watches his sister win, but races along side the track, wanting to be just like her. She see’s this with pride and realizes where her priorities should be.

Rating: 7-6-7-6 Total= 26

#452 Gorilla, My Love- Toni Cade Bambara

#452 Gorilla, My Love- Toni Cade Bambara

Hazel is a tough young girl. She’s stubborn and very serious. She took her brothers to the movies to see Gorilla, My Love, but when she found out that it wasn’t about Gorilla’s she stormed into the managers office and demanded her money back. Not getting it she set fire to the concession stand, because when a movie title says ‘gorilla’ it better have gorillas in it.

She feels betrayed by everything that isn’t what it seems. Her uncle, Hunca Bubba, is the latest to “lie” to her, because when she was a baby, he told her she was so cute, he was going to marry her one day. Adults are untrustworthy, the kids better stick together.

“And baby Jason cryin too. Cause he is my blood brother and understands that we must stick together or be forever lost, what with grownups playin change-up and turnin you round every which way so bad. And don’t even say they sorry.”

Rating: 7-6-7-7 Total= 27

#410 My Man Bovanne- Toni Cade Bambara

#410 My Man Bovanne- Toni Cade Bambara

This is from Bambara’s collection, Gorilla, My Love, originally printed in 1960. A woman, a single mother dances with a blind man, she enjoys herself. She is a city girl, through and through.

“And I ain’t never been souther than Brooklyn-Battery and no more country than the window box on my fire escape.”

All around her the community is changing, the “grass roots” and “black power” is growing, and suddenly thongs she is wearing and thongs she has been doing for years is being criticized. Her own sons are calling her horrible names for dancing with the blind man. Maybe she enjoyed the dance, because he was the only one in her life that wasn’t judging her superficially.

In the introduction to this collection, Bambara says she doesn’t write autobiographical fiction because she doesn’t want the hassle of friends and family getting upset at what she writes about.

“So I deal in straight up fiction myself, cause I value my family and friends, and mostly cause I lie a lot anyway.”

That’s a great quote!

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31