The Black Mama Experience

While her left eyebrow was elevated, her right eye was slightly closed, there was no blinking or movement of any kind. She looked, absolutely fearless! She looked him dead in his eyes and said with clinched teeth, "I will kill you, let go of my muthafucken radio!"

We were BALLING!

As a family, my parents did pretty good for themselves. They pretty much maintained the same level of financial status as their White counterparts and in most cases they did better than some of them. But in the Black community, my parents were considered RICH (or at least they appeared to be).

They each had a brand new car. We had a big four bedroom, upstairs and downstairs (black folks didn't say two-story back then) house with not one, or two, but four bathrooms. As far as my parents (particularly my mothers) friends and family were concerned, our family was the family to emulate.

When a family member or friend wanted to borrow money, my parents were the "Bank Of Yes". My mother always said yes, even if they didn't have the money to loan out. There was no way she was going to have anyone thinking we were broke and didn't have it to loan. My mother would always say, "It ain't none of their damn business."

My dad had all of the up to date electronics. He had a stereo system that had different components that connected together. I had only seen other people with boom boxes. My mother had diamond rings that would make any woman green with envy. She had expensive shoes and clothes in the closet with the tags still on them. My siblings and I wore designer clothes and shoes. Most of our cousins and friends wore hand me down stuff. By the time the last kid got the hand me down shoes, the shoes would be so worn down they were pretty much walking on the concrete. They were jealous of us and we knew it.

We were SPOILED!

One day, my mother surprised us with a newly released electronic. It was the first of it's kind. No one else that we knew had this thing but us. It was a portable black and white television/radio that you could take anywhere you went. It could be used three ways, with about eight D batteries, plugged into a wall outlet, or you could plug it into the lighter outlet in your car. I thought, "When my friends get a load of this, they are going to think we are really RICH!"

We were so excited to take our first drive to use yet another gadget (that we didn't need) my mother squandered her money on. My mother was obviously excited to show it off as well, because the very next day she said, "Y'all get dressed, we're going to L.A.." That's where she was from, and that's where most of her family lived. If there was "Flossing" (showing off) to be had, L.A. was the place to do it.

On the drive up, we sat in the back seat with the windows down and the fresh air blowing in our faces. My mom set the radio/t.v. up between the driver and passenger seat so that we could all clearly see it. When she turned it on for the first time, our eyes widened as if we had just witnessed black magic. As we watched Mighty Mouse, our smiles were so big you could see every tooth in our mouths, from the front to the back. Our drive to L.A. this time, seemed too short compared to other times we've driven up there. We didn't want the excitement to end.

We were LOVED!

Our first stop was at my grandfathers house. When we went to L.A we didn't just visit one house, we visited many homes and apartments of my mothers friends and family members. It felt like an exhausting, never ending all day special event. My grandfather lived on a busy L.A. street where the traffic was constant, and my mom always parked right in front of his front door so that she could keep an eye on her car. When we got out of the car my mother was already walking inside of the house when she yelled over her shoulder, "Make sure you lock the doors, so that no one takes the radio!" We did what we were told and ran excitedly into the house to see our granddaddy.

Our granddaddy was an old school taxi cab driver. Back in his day the customers would put the cash directly into his hand. Because of that, he always had cash and we always reaped the benefits of that every time we went to visit him. The minute we ran inside the house he started reaching into his pants pocket saying, "Let me see what granddaddy got for the babies." We stood in front of him with our hands held out with smiles as big as the sun. If I remember correctly, he would only give each of us a dollar, but to kids, that was a lot of money.

As he is about to hand us the money, I heard a noise outside. My mother must have heard it too because she went running toward the front door. The only thing I could hear my mother yell was, "My radio!", as she bolted out of the door. My granddaddy, my brother, my sister and I ran toward the front door to see where my mother went. When we made it outside the door, there was glass on the sidewalk where our car was parked. As we looked toward the direction my mother went running, we could see her running barefoot after a man. She must have kicked off her shoes as she was running because they were there, scattered on the sidewalk. My granddaddy yelled, "Baby come back, you're gonna get yourself hurt!" My mother yelled backwards barely breathing, "That muthafucka got my radio!"

We had a CRAZY ASS MAMA!

I ran to the car and saw that the passenger side window was broken and our brand new radio/t.v. was missing. I remember thinking to myself, "Oh no, how are we gonna watch t.v. now!" I looked in the direction of my mother again and found myself rooting for her. I don't know how, but she had caught up with the thief. The radio had a handle on it so that you could easily hold it, well they each had one end of the handle. I could hear my mother say to him as she is yanking at the radio, "Muthafucka, give me my got damn radio" The thief didn't budge, but he was looking at my mother as if she had lost her mind. If he was a career thief, I could only imagine him thinking, "This shit has never happened, what the fuck do I do?"

As the thief was yanking the radio trying to pry it from my mothers hands, he yelled, "Let go bitch!" That did not faze my mother, her face looked evil as if she had been temporarily possessed. If you were a bystander passing by the altercation, it would be hard for you to tell who was the victim. To solidify and give a more dramatic affect to her position, my moms right eye started doing its signature move. While her left eyebrow was elevated, her right eye started to slightly close, there was no blinking or movement of any kind. She looked, absolutely fearless! She looked him dead in his eyes and said with clinched teeth, "I will kill you, let go of my muthafucken radio!" At this point, the man must have realized she was not bluffing and that he was not dealing with your average ordinary woman. He let go of my moms radio and ran as if she was still running after him.

My mom turned and started walking back toward my granddaddy's house with a smile on her face, as if she had just won a fight with Muhammad Ali. My granddaddy was shaking his head in disappointment and my mother said, "What? I wasn't letting him take my radio daddy."

To me, my mother looked like a black super hero and a villain at the same time. I was happy she got our t.v. back but I was scared as hell at how she got it back. As I stood outside waiting for her to walk up, she looked at me smiling and as she grabbed my hand to go inside she said, nodding her head, "Mama got our SHIT back."