Shopping in the burbs
By Joy Lynn Clark
February 10, 2022
In middle school I moved from my mom’s house to my dad’s house. Mom took baby sister and her new hubby and moved to Indiana. I moved a few towns away but stayed in Illinois.
I jumped right into my new life in a proper nuclear Family. Dad, stepmother, stepbrother, and I. Dad was always busy at work and grumpy. My step brother and I had a healthy fear. On the other hand, my stepmother was very welcoming and I came to see her as, “the good cop”.
Saturday mornings were always shopping and chores. Stepmother would get up really early to go shopping and then we return home and clean our rooms and do laundry etc.
This particular morning we head off to the Saturday market. Whenever we would come, which was like every other week because biweekly we did groceries. At the market stepmom buys things for the house and gives us each a little cash to grab something that we like. My stepbrother started a coin collection and always went to that kiosk and I always went to grab mixtapes at another booth.
Sometimes if stepmom was feeling generous she would buy me silver and my stepbrother got some accessory like gloves or a belt. I also liked baseball caps so she would get us those too.
I bought all kinds of tapes, mostly rap. That year I discovered a new phenomenon – these guys are cussing! Mentally I teleported to the dog eat dog world of the hood. My stepbrother and I giggled at first, but we quickly became huge fans. I love gangsta rap.Eventually, we begged for walkmans. We got those too at the market. We eventually started seeing these rap guys on the video shows also.
The next week was grocery week. I didn’t always need to come but stepmom will let us pick out sodas. This was definitely soda week so I am game.
This was like a scene from a movie. I may have even been listening to it in my Walkman. Stepmom sends us off to choose sodas and she starts perusing the meat coolers.
My stepbrother and I are counting sodas and picking flavors. There was like a sale, “five for one” I decide to go back and tell stepmother that we can get more because of the sale. There he is, this gangsta rapper without his eyepatch grocery shopping! I freak out and run and tell my stepbrother. I whisper to my stepbrother that this guy is shopping here without his eyepatch. My stepbrother says, “yeah right, no eyepatch?”. “Yeah right by your mom”, I replied. “I am taking the sodas back.” He answers.
When we get back by stepmother there he is, by the meat cooler too. We put all of the sodas in the cart and we are trying to hold back our elation. Finally stepmother says, “what?”. Both stepbrother and I are full of jitters and giggly. We just can’t stand still and we are not sure if mom, affectionately, would know what we are talking about and I also wasn’t sure if this guy was going to act like we were too young to be his fans.But, stepbrother eventually spills the beans. “That guy is a rapper”. Both of us wait until the guy goes and then we let it out, “my mind is playing tricks on me!” We both start singing and motion as if we’re rapping into a mic. It’s like the hottest rap song. I can’t believe they live out here too! My stepmother doesn’t get it. On the other hand, we eventually get used to it. They really do live out here.
