I HAVE NO TRIBE
--
I seem to be a tight group of ONE. Join me for a few moments.
I have been hampered my whole life with one problem. I have no tribe. No posse. No definitive ethnic group. My family is very small. I don’t have a religion. I don’t even have a quilting group. The problem has only intensified with age. The few people I do know keep dying.
I haven’t joined anything since the Army which was so long ago I remember only the fun parts. This is a problem for most senior citizens (I HATE that expression). Everyone is so diverse that any label is worthless.
I have never had a nick name. No street name. No rap name. How can I walk in slow motion without a posse. I tend to walk in slow motion anyway because I’m 73 but that doesn’t count. I’m just too homogeneous. I was going to use a pen name but the financial and legal problems where too daunting. What ev. I can’t even use modern slang. It doesn’t flow smoothly over an old tongue.
If I where African American my tribe would be visually defined. There are many groups in such a broad classification but each one has a great and cohesive identity. For example, Jamaicans have the great accent and cool clothes if they care to act ethnically. If I go out smoking a 6 inch blunt, people will talk. I won’t get arrested which is a consolation prize. All I’ll get is,“What’s the old white woman doing? Maybe she’s an albino Jamaican.” I think that is one reason for racial prejudice. People are jealous of a tight community. Music emanates from black American culture. It is admired and was one of the few industries that black people were accepted into.
It might be only me. What did my people give me? Polkas and Wagner with a little Irish dancing thrown in for excitement. There is no flow, no Bossa Nova, no tango, just stiff, armed River dancing.
Latino people have it made. I grew up near a Puerto Rican neighborhood. They tended to have big families with lots of siblings. I admire those kinds of tight family units. Someone is bound to do something foolish or have unusual features which means an automatic nick name. Johnny Flaco or Luz Luz or Tito the Man. It seems like the larger the…
