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A Fish out of Water

Look Before You Leap

By Jerome HowardPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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A FISH OUT OF WATER

A Fish out of Water

A fish out of water, can I get any more cliché than that? I am a 64-year-old man, who was born from a fifty-year-old man and a forty-year-old woman. My siblings are 17, 18 and 19 years older than me. Only Ida (19 years older than me and my rock or maybe I am hers) is still with us, who is six months older than my only surviving Auntie, who was the baby of 11 children my grandmother on my mother’s side had. So, my mother, was the oldest of 11 and the first to leave her home town of Littleton, NC at 18 years old and venture out to the Big Apple. She was born in 1914. My dad was born in 1904, somewhere in Ohio, to a beautiful white, blue eyed, blond woman and a black man who she married pre-1900’s. That wasn’t even legal in America at that time.

Me, I was born and raised in the Bronx, NY and I have never lived in a private house (to this day). An apartment dweller in the Bronx and now here in Texas, where I moved in 1995. From a big city (NYC pop, 8.623 million 2017) to a big city, (Houston, TX, pop. 2.313 million 2017). Sounds like a love affair to me. Tropical weather, no more snow, short sleeve shirts on Christmas Day. I’m going to love this. So, I thought, until reality sat in.

Culture shock, OMG!

So, I went to the downtown Houston to check on the lunch time crowd, where I would make most of my money in NYC. I would sell umbrellas when it rains, or tee shirts, or holiday music greetings cards (Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.) or whatever the current event was. I was a street vendor and at one time had a table on 125st Street and Lenox Avenue in the Village of Harlem.

So, I am now in downtown Houston, at lunch time, waiting for the magic to happen. Crickets… Very few store fronts and almost no people. It took me three days to realize that even though was standing in the center of skyscrapers, no one comes out for lunch. A learning experience, it took me a couple years to figure out that there are underground tunnels that lead to a indoor mall and food court, that all the downtown building are connected to them. And most building have indoor parking garages so you don’t even see people when they are leaving work.

Another thing, in NYC, I didn’t need a car. I was in Houston, TX, without a car. This was my biggest miscalculation. NYC has the luxury of 900 miles of underground railroad, called the subway. We New Yorkers take this for granted. No matter where you are in NYC, it’s a short walk, a short bus ride, or a short cab ride to the subway. Hell, you can even take the train to and from the airports. Even Newark Airport which is in New Jersey.

And I still have never adjusted to this strange southern lifestyle in which people are friendlier (compared to NYC, so they say) but people do not connect with each other. You live somewhere for years and really don’t know your neighbors. For brief moments people here will take the time to converse with you, I think, because unlike NYC, you don’t come into contact with thousands of people on a daily. You only ride the bus if you have no other transportation unless you use the park and ride. And no subway!

Culture shock, OMG!

Even now, I still walk into a Walmart or a mall or a supermarket to be around a group of people who are forced to interact with each other on some level. That is why I love the movies so much here. I get to stand in line with, and just be around large groups of people.

But now here is the twist!

I am an introvert… as shy as kitten… and nobody knows!

Looking back at what I have wrote so far, maybe I have a few more stories to tell. "The Introverted Salesman," "The Ticket Scalper Whose Scared To Talk," "The Marriage That Never Happen, But still Might After 38 Years," and "The Marriage That Was A Train Wreck."

And since I have committed myself to write one of these every day, I’ll leave you with this little tidbit. I really need you to help me. I need to know if I should continue to writing these stories, about my life and times as a Fish Out of Water, or should I write some fiction. Or maybe just put the pen down and back away.

Please help me by leaving a word or two, good or bad, as a comment below and share this if you liked it. If anyone wants to reach out, I am on Facebook at: facebook.com/jthow2001 or facebook.com/nomoreblackeyes. Twitter at: twitter.com/jthow2001. But I only share my stories here. And Thank you for taking the time read this and letting me express myself in public, for the first time and God Bless You All.

solo travel
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