A Century of Ages: Ma Blues Highway




4 decades of thoughts of driving from Mississippi to New Orleans to Chicago then taking Route 66 to Central Avenue, Los Angeles in a 1950s drop-top Pink Cadillac, with Sweet Southern Soul Jazzing Ma Radio Dial, in Amazon-Ganja-Green ADIDAS™ Head to Toe, hat titled to the "GOOD FOOT" (right side), phat laces making the stripes on Ma Whites caressing the three on the floor, Silver-Back paw ringing the stick, General Motors filing for bankruptcy AND a twitter conversation with a newly found ArtBruh are the parents of this posts.

The 5 Stages of Aging

1. New out the Showroom with the new car smell.
Ages:- Conception/Birth to 20

2. Used.
Ages:- 21 to 40

3. HOOPTIE
Ages:- 41 to 60

4. Classic
Ages:- 61 to 80

5. Vintage
Ages:- 81 to 100


I took great Pride at 2 years old in being called Woman-ish by My Mother. And four decades later, I must confess, it was then i made an unconscious pledge to -ish ON! This has resulted in a 42 year old Toddler, who to quote a character from The Red Green Show, "has grown older but not grown up."


My early Childhood SUNday afternoons with Granny and Her WomanFrens sitting at the head of Station Street in Dieppe Bay, (a Town in St. Paul's Cappesterre Parrish in The Independent Federation of St. Kitts-Nevis,) with Winnie selling roasted peanuts, a quart (.25 cents) for an overflowing tin cup full and Them laughing, reflecting only pausing to tell me, "Chile, you is the reason they dont bury chi'ren wid Big People" only further served to cement my authority as being fully iin charge of my -ISHnest.


For this always indicated to me that whatever 'grown-up' thing they had just said in Papiamento or Our Native Kreyol, I had fully understood and was laughing my belly full along with them.


These Woman and Ma Uncle Ziekel, Granny's brother were Ma Frens. It never occured to me then and still seems wonder-filled that they were not 2 years old like me, but in 1969 were People born in the late 19th and early 20th century. Nor did I ever think and at this stage ever will think of MaSelf as anything other than short for Ma age. (I am 5' 6", 5' 7" if you rest the ruler atop Ma Nappy Tresses and only Alex, MaNephew is shorter than me. The other four, 12, 13, 22 and 25 have all snickered away my requests to STOP GROWING. As of this post, I have not made such an inquiry of Alex. But I am ready, He turned 2 last month.)

Since the age of 6, I have had the pleasure and delight to live in, discover and be embraced by the Culture and People of Carriacou, Grenada Grenadines; Palmetto Points, another village in St.Kitts-Nevis; Brooklyn, New York; St.Croix, United States Virgin Islands; Pittsburh, Pennsylvania; Opa Locka, Florida; (Carol City) Miami Gardens, Florida and Seattle, WA.

Along my travels I have island hopped by LIAT (Leeward Islands Air Transport) through out the Eastern Caribbean, vacationed in Bermuda and most major Cities in Canada. Those journeys always involved planes, but it was my childhood wish to one day hop a locolotive hauliing sugar cane to the factory in Basseterre that makes my travels by train via AMTRAK all across America, the most exciting of all my jaunts. Sharing this podium in an almost tie are the trips by public bus, where they connect one town, county or somtimes state to another. The Beautiful people I see, the Life-Love filled conversations I eavesdrop quietly on and the all out gossip I barge into cannot be compared.

My future goals include thumbing my way from truck stop to truck stop by Big Rig and exploring from Appalachia to The Adirondacks in A Winnebago before settling into a two room Country Cottage, like the one I shared with My Granny until the age of 6, in Vermont just in time for The Fall of Autumn's Leafy Bounty.

But this is supposed to be about Cars and how I have long used their cute pet names as barometers to describe different stages of Human age. So what was it I started out to say.

Oh, Life begins when You feel it dawning and 'ends' like a sunset, just dipping below the Horizon, having thought gone by those viewing from The East and been thought coming by those in The West.

Always Remember Aliyah, "Age ain't nothing but a number."

And like all the Big Bodies with the grills in the 1950s, the ultra sleek sporty muscles of the 1960s and the last of the Steel Land Yachts of the 1970s, some roll Vintage off the assembly line by train and big rigs into the showroom.






Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

No comments: