Palatka is an entertaining place to be if you just have the right attitude and pay attention. Mostly I don’t like living here but occasionally I am reminded that in other places where higher culture abounds, people like the man my daughters and I met tonight aren’t as prevalent.
Kelly is home visiting for the weekend and had decided she was starving, she usually does this after everyone else has eaten but since I don’t see her as much and since we had been out most of the evening I relented and stopped at a local pizza take-out.
We were sitting in the parking lot talking to our friend (who had the same idea for dinner) and waiting for the pizza to finish when a black man on a bicycle pulled up quickly next to Kelly’s open window and said “Don’ shoot a nigga!” To which I calmly and brilliantly replied “I can’t, I don’t have a gun.” I suppose , if we had possessed any common sense (which I now doubt) we should have been frightened but we just burst into laughter. The man lifted up his shirt and said “I don’ either but dat don’ stop you fum callin’ da Poh-leece and dey’ll shoot a nigga!” I shouldn’t have but I cracked up even more.
He spouted on more about the perils of being a black man much to our delight and at the end of it all he left with $3.25 (our total combined worth) and we were offered a blessing of safety and a good night.
My friend, thankfully, had the good sense to stay until he left and I noticed she had her cell phone out, ready to call in the “Poh-leece” if needed.
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