Friday, January 31, 2014

It's a wonder...

Den of the Beastly Bear


Hiya Folks!

Well it's Friday, finally...the 31st. and I managed to write a blog everyday!!! Yay me!

As I write this my page counter sits at 2,130 views!

I am amazed, thank you all!

My wife continuously wonders how I remain alive despite my predilection for calling people on their bullshit, being aggressively truthful, and my distain for pretention!

As a truck driver, my travels took me all over Michigan, and the surrounding states. On days I was local Metro Detroit was my main stomping grounds.

Usually I had college age kids helping me with store orders, occasionally a retiree working part time just to get out of the house.

I was at this store on the west side of Detroit, and had a crew of 4 college age black men working with me. 
As we were working I noticed that this one fella was being treated a little different by the other guys. He held himself aloof from his fellows, he had a certain air of arrogance and superiority... and was quick with little snarly comments for his compatriots. We took a break half way through their order, as they had half of a 53 ft. trailer.

As we were sharing a soda and a couple laughs, I noticed our superior friend was fiddling with a leather medallion he wore on a leather thong proundly displayed on the outside his smock.
"What ya got there?" I asked motioning with my pop bottle.
" Oh dis?" He said "Dis here my ______"
I don't recall the word he used, but I was unfamiliar with the term so I asked.
"You're WHAT?"
"Man dis here represent my heritage!" And he held it out for me to see.
"Oh," I said "how long have you been in the States?"
He gave me a smirk. (Stupid truck driver it said)
"Naw man, I'm from here..."
"So you recently visited there?"
"No, man it represent my family!"
"So your parents are from Africa?"
"No"
"Your Grandparents??"
"Huh unh..." 
"Your Great-Grandparents???
"No man....you just don't get it, it's my heritage! I'm African!"
I shook my head.
"No man, YOU don't get it! Aside from skin tone, that makes you about as fucking African as I am!!! What YOU are is American!"
I thought his buddies were gonna die...they just fell out laughing and hooting at him. I got the distinct impression these guys had heard his little spiel many times before...
"Man....why you fuckin' wit me???"
"Not, just trying to understand.."
He was quite a bit more subdued the rest of the time I was there, his buddies chuckling whenever they looked at him.

Another thing that really bugs me is improper speech.
Despite your station in life, language is free! Respect yourself and those around you enough to make yourself clearly understood...or I just might give you shit about it.

Again Metro Detroit, different store...unloading a truck.
We used rollers to unload. If your don't know what those are, imagine 8 foot sections of ladder with metal rods for rungs and steel roller skate wheels spaced along the rungs. You build yourself a ramp inside the trailer, set the boxes on the rollers and let gravity do the work for you.

At the end of the truck there is a guy that stops the box and either transfers it to a roller going into the store or puts the boxes on a cart to take in.
This particular day the fellow transferring boxes needed me to stop sending boxes for a minute, and hollered up into the truck.
"Hoe DUP!"
I stopped and walked down to the end of the trailer and said. "What?"
"Hoe DUP!" He repeated
"Man, I think it's great you're learning a second language...and Korean's a tough one! Good for you!"
"Huh?" 
"Well you said 'Hoe DUP' right?"
"Yeah..." 
"Well that's Korean for 'with duck', though why you would say that to me I really can't fathom!"
"Man, I don't speak no Korean, I meant 'HOLD UP'!!!"
He said, enunciating VERY clearly.
"Ah, so you DO speak English as well, fantastic!!! In the future if you use English I'm much more likely to understand you."
"Asshole....You understand DAT!"
"Yes, I understand THAT! Just let me know when you're ready to start up again." And walked back to my place in the front of the trailer.
Didn't share a good natured soda and talk that day, that's ok...I made my point!

Guess it is a wonder...Lol!

Be well folks!

Beastly Bear



12 comments:

  1. Dude you are lucky none of these guys shanked you. lmao I remember when I lived in the SF Bay Area, the Oakland schools were kicking around either offering Ebonics as a class or recognizing it as a language. Of course they became the subject of great ridicule despite the uber left wing/liberal stance of all the surrounding cities (even Berkeley thought it was ridiculous!). But I think what annoys me the most is when white kids do it. We know a few young people in their 20s and 30s that speak that way and they don't realize how stupid they sound.

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    1. JoJo, reminds me of a line from a Burt Reynolds movie "Sharky's Machine"
      where a guy tells Burt(who is undercover) "Don't try to talk black...ya sound stupid!"

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  2. I'm not gonna tell you to be careful because you're gonna do what ya want, but did you hear about that guy who just got shot for texting during the previews?

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    1. I did Donna, the shooter was the aggressor from the get go! I just tear down there pretensions, and ridicule their stupidity.

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  3. LOL, I love reading ur stuff..always good for a smile and laugh!

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    1. Thank you Sherry, you are always so supportive.. ;-)

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  4. LMAO...you are too funny!! I bet you are a fun one to be around...never a dull moment! ♥

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    1. Thanks Kathy! I've always been a bit of the class clown...sometimes though quick wit and a twisted sense of humor get me in trouble...

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  5. lol....that one still brings a smile to my face, was a real pleasure working with you and I'm proud to call you my friend. Every once in a while a memory will come to me and I can't help but laugh pout loud. Keep on being the "beastly Bear". You've earned it.
    Horebate

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    1. Right back at you Dave!!! You made working there not just tolerable, but a pleasure! We had us some times, didn't we?!?
      Can't wait for our next lunch!

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  6. Good for you! I am constantly correcting people like that, they get pissed and I don't care. I get pissed when I have to listen to my native tongue being slaughtered by a bunch of dumb asses to lazy to speak.

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    1. I do think it's lazyness!!! Like skipping those couple syllables is really saving you that much time and effort? Really???

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