Up South In Akron 1959 (Page 4)

[Page 4]

Oh, yeah, I had women customers, too -- some who just liked giving me sneaky little peeks up their dresses when I shined their shoes. I knew this and they knew this.

But I also kept a sharpened screwdriver and an appropriate-sized steel pipe for some of my more overzealous competitors and the deviants and perverts who thought they had the right to take advantage of a child.

Not to say I didn’t have my friends on the street. Eunice helped me make money. She was a barmaid in the High Hat and had the prettiest black – and I mean BLACK – skin I had ever seen, and one of the most radiant smiles to go right along with it. Her sister worked in Pierre and Andre’s. Long before Jimmy Castor even thought about writing that song, these two were the authentic and bona fide Butt Sisters. Whenever they walked down the street together, everything and everybody looked and pondered in their direction.

Eunice would make all the men in the bar get a shine from me. They’d mumble and grumble, but she made them do it anyway. Then I would dance for her. Eunice liked to see me dance. She’d drop some coins into the jukebox and I would do my thing. Back then I had two favorite songs: “Jim Dandy” by Laverne Baker and “Hitch Hike” by Marvin Gaye. And when I was finished, Eunice would hug and kiss me, and what a divine joy that was.

One night I walked into Benny River's and my father was playing trumpet onstage. He had formed his own quartet for the evening. As I walked around the club soliciting shines, he moved in my direction and played down at me for about three minutes. It was the greatest moment that he and I ever shared.