(Telephone rings)
Hello?
What it do brudder-in-law?
Is this the #1 Stunna?? (smiling)
You know it ‘tis..
Heyy wassup baby!? What it do with you??
Oh it ain’t nuthin..hey?
Yeah?
I’m going home ta Lose’ana this weekend.
Oh yeah?
Yeah..you won’t me ta bring ya some mo’ boudain?
You know I do, we’re down to our last box.
How many boxes you won’t me ta bring ya this time?
You going to that same place to get it?
Yeah man, that same place we always go to in Vealplatte.
Okay..get me 4 box’s then.
Foe huh? You won’t dat spicy or dat mile?
Go ahead and get me the spicy.
Your kids can eat dat, yeah?
Yeah, they’ll eat that spicy, but go ahead and bring me 2 box’s of the mild too.
If they anything like my kids, they probably like that spicy better anyway, shoot my lil 3 year old boy can eat a whole biggo bag of hot chips without drinking no water or nuthin. Alright then, I’ll make sure to get you your 4 boxes spicy and 2 boxes mile.
Thanks Stunna..you want me to bring you the money now before you go?
Naw..I’m on my way out right now, I’ll just get it from you when I come back.
Allready! Ya’ll be careful on that road now.
Aw man, I’m riding with all my kids, you know I ain’t go be dranking or nothing…I wait until I get off the road before I start popping them tops..but hey?
Yeah?
Once I get back home with my kinfolks? Its go be time to drink til we walking sideways!
Alright Stunna..I’ll holla at you when you get back.
Allready!
One of the best things about growing up on the Southside of Houston, Texas, is the diversity of the people that make up the community. Most people will say, ‘Diversity? It ain’t nothing but black folks on the Southside?!’, but that’s just to the naked eye. When you look at black folks as a race, there’s actually only a handful of people who are actually BLACK (My grandfather was one of them :). The color spectrum ranges all the way from ‘high yella bone’ to butterscotch, red bone, honey brown, caramel, coffee and those so dark that when they sweat they look like a melted Hershey’s bar. Black folks have a diverse gene pool that started with the dominant African gene and over the years was mixed with the blood of the white slave master’s, Native Americans, Hispanic’s, Asian’s, and pretty much every race imaginable. The color diversity is just part of the mix, the real diversity is the one of culture.
Most older people migrated to the Southside, from small country towns in East Texas, Southern Louisiana, Northern Louisiana, and Arkansas. Whether it was for the opportunity to attend college at Texas Southern University (Southside U!) or just because Houston was the largest southern city with more job opportunities than most of the depressed economies that they were living in, the Southside was the Mecca for black folks in Houston. People from all over came to the Southside to kick it! Whether it was to party at the old JB’s entertainment center or just to get some good down home fried chicken w/red beans and rice from Frenchy’s, the Southside was the place to go get it. The most interesting thing about it is when you bring together the horse riding Texas cowboys and the Cajun and Creole cultures of Southern Louisiana, along with the mustard green, oxtail eaters from East Texas and Northern Louisiana and throw in the generous and loud people from Arkansas..you get a melting pot simmering with spicy people.
One of the common traits of folks on the Southside, is that we like spicy foods. Spicy doesn’t always have to mean hot..just not bland and flavorless. The Africans and Caribbeaner’s brought their methods of preparing food to America, using many spices and slow-cooking methods that let the flavor seep all the way down to the bone, that will make the taste buds feel alive! You can’t drive by too many corners on the Southside without seeing a bar-b-que man setup with his pit smoking some meat and selling ‘bobby-q-samiches’, or maybe its some coon-az (common slang for them Cajun folks, but you better be careful who you say that too) selling fried turkeys and dirty rice dressing, or a farmer on the side of the road selling fresh collard greens, yams, okra and sweet watermelons or a hunter with an ice chest full of skinned and cleaned raccoons, squirrels or rabbits for sale..the Southside is in the mix.
For all those who like hot peppers with their fried chicken, Tabasco on their eggs, pepper sauce on their greens and chow-chow with their peas..I know ya’ll feel me. Like most other native Southside kids, I grew up eating spicy foods. Whether it was my father’s delicious pork ribs that will make you want to gnaw on the bone or some of my aunties good chili that will make you start sweating when you eat it, I like that spice. There have been a couple of experiences like getting hold of a pepper that someone forgot to take out of the pot of greens that made my eyes water and my mouth feel like it was about to disintegrate from the heat, but I still hold strong and I can’t turn back. There’s a wonderful and spicy mix of folks that have called the Southside home, Debbie and Phylicia Allen, Michael Singletary, Cliff Branch, Darrel Green, Scarface, Clyde Drexler, Beyonce Knowles the list is never-ending. Spice is a way of life for the Southside and I like it so much, I just had to marry one of those sweet cinnamon brown queens that you can only find, on the Southside.
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