Mark Your TERRITORY!!! (Part I)

Note: Uh... in the interest of not giving you a long ass post, I am breaking this post up into 2 or 3 parts..

I haven't lived with many people during my lifetime.

My sister and I live together right now. I occupy the main level of my house, while she resides over the top floor. So we can go days without seeing each other, lol. She's 26 years old, some 11 years younger than myself. That can be a trip sometimes, because she looks at me sideways when I start lecturing her. But I do better these days! We get along much better these days!

I shacked up with a dude once. Later married him. Later divorced him. Ain't shacking with no jokers no more. Humph.

I've lived with friends at times. Interesting how you learn about folks when you live with them. Hmm...

But, by far, the most interesting and memorable person I've ever lived with was a white woman. I can not for the life of me remember her name.

We will call her "Ms. Clara".

She was so interesting to me that one of the characters in my story Leaving Jersey (the character Elba, for those of you who have read it) was based on her. Whenever I work on this character, who, by the way, everyone in my writing class absolutely LOVES, I think of "Ms. Clara".

No, she wasn't this lovable "Aunt Bea" type. Uh, she was far from that. Ms. Clara is by far the most interesting (in a CRAZY, eclectic, DISTURBING kind of way), I've ever met.

And she was the first person I'd ever met who was rather adamant about one thing:

Marking her territory.

When I finished my Ph.D. in 1998 (damn, has it been THAT long ago?), I obtained a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship in New Orlea.ns with the USD.A in the area of ter.mite chemistry.

I was shacking with my man at the time, and while I was waiting for my start date, I had a little clerical job. (Imagine the looks on people's faces when they found out I was a "Dr.", yet content to happily file forms all day. Shoot, I was just happy to be done with school, and doing something non-nervewracking for a change, lol.)

So, needless to say, when it came time for me to move to New Orl.eans, I didn't have much money. I only had about 800 bucks.

That's not enough for moving expenses, apartment deposits. . . nothing.

One solution: BOARDING HOUSE.

Yeah, the Oldgirl decided to live in a boarding house for about 5 to 6 weeks.

Now, I'd never done anything like that before. But I didn't know anyone in Louisi.ana. I'd made a quick visit down there. A friend of my man's had hooked me up with a chick who drove me around to a few apartment complexes that she liked. And when the job flew me in for an interview, the sister in the research group drove me around also. So I knew where I wanted to live.

But I had no money. So I found a boarding room.

I called a couple of places. The place I settled on was in Kenner, near the LA airport, about 11 miles from my job. I spoke on the phone with a woman name "Ms. Clara".

When I got off the phone with her, I called my BFF LadyTee.

"You find somewhere to live, Lee?"
"Yeah, I think," I said. "This place is 105 bucks a week, out in the suburbs. But I don't know."
"Why you say that?"
"Because, this chick sound like a dang redneck."
"Ah hell n'awl!" LadyTee yelled.
"And, you know, I can put on my professional voice at the drop of a dime. I don't think she could tell I was black."

LadyTee laughed real hard at that one. A bit too hard, really.

Well, it came time for me to go. My man "Oldboy" packed up my ol' 73 Nova, and his Thunderbird, and we were gonna get on the road. LadyTee and I had another convo...

"You taking Oldboy with you?"
"Yeah. We're making the 6 hour drive, getting me settled in, going to get a hotel, and he'll leave in the morning."
"And you say the chick is a redneck?"
"Girl, I don't know that! She just sounding a bit crazy."
"And you taking Oldboy with you? With him looking like Thug Love with all the earrings and the braids on his head?"
"Yeah, girl!"
"Man, that Old lady gonna see him and be like 'Oh hell no, you can't stay here'".
"Shut up, girl!!"
"Haaaa! That ol' broad gonna run get her shotgun and run ya'll n***** up outta there.
"Shut up, Tee! Stop playing!"

Again... LadyTee laughed a bit too hard. I believe that chick was joning me out for a couple days.

I remember looking at Oldboy, wishing he would take off a few earrings, wishing that he would cut his hair or something.

"Baby, you better stop listening to LadyTee, with her ol' crazy self."

I listened to him, but reluctantly...

So we drove down to Louisiana...

To be continued...