Jelly Roll: A Black Neighborhood in a Southern Mill Town

15. Talk About Town: A Casual Exchange

CHAPTER 15 Talk About Town A Casual Exchange Jelly Roll is much involved in gossip and street talk. In a sense this can be seen as a substitute for the sometimes unaffordable diversions and consumer luxuries that so preoccupy the time and energy of middle-class America. In this little communitiy gossip is a staple of everyday life, and even casual street encounters are often charged with intensity and excitement. Personal exchanges are frequently high-pitched and filled with slights and innuendo; and the ever-present hustle injects a note of wariness in conversations, even among friends. Neighbors deal with each other suspiciously for fear of being exploited or abused. Cooperation is, as a rule, confined to relationships within the family, and even there, is often strained by mutual demands. Except for the ostensible work of several church groups, the spirit ofcommunity cooperation, pulling together towards common goals, seems to be as dead as the old timers say it is. In its place is a community hustling a buck and individual advantages, but with style and humor. On a rainy day one can sit in any number of drab living rooms while the host spins out endless tales of intrigue allegedly transpiring all around you. Moreover, cross-referencing the data presented • as related to individual events, with very few exceptions, confirms their authenticity and accuracy. In a little town like Jelly Roll, street talk is "in the know," and apparently there is little time for 121 idle speculation. Street accounts are inclined to distort events by the lurid manner in which they are presented; there is a tabloid quality to the news, as well as the telescoping oftime to make unusual events appear to be happening in rapid succession, rather than stretched out over a much longer time frame. The subsequent dialogue was recorded on a warm, sunny day's visit between the street and porches of three nearby houses. The conversants are all middle-aged or older. Their gossip and commentary concentrates on their observations of the activities ofthe young people that live around them. The talk is laced with hostilities directed at their contemporary neighbors. Well how you, Miss Lucy? Well, I'm not much. This rheumatism like to got me down. I need to go see the doctor, but I can't afford it. Maybe you need to get in the black jack game at Saphire's house when you get your check. Might make you a killing. I heard they took Halperna's whole [welfare] check the other night. She came to play and they showed the way! More money where that came from. She got three checks comin' in every month besides what she gets off her old man. The house is paid for. She always got money on her. I heard she brought Helen [her sixteen-year-old daughter] with her to the game. They were playin' and jammin' until three a.m. Mother and daughter side by side. Got no business with children alongside of them in a game like that. She got no business doin' most the things she do, but that never stopped Halperna. I'm tellin' you, she's lettin' those three girIs of hers run wild. That poor old man of hers don't know which way to turn. They fish the money out of his pants pocket with a coat hanger while he's asleep. [The two women are joined by a third neighbor]. Hey! Who you sisters knockin' on? Half the town, of course. I can't get no sleep for the goings on around here. Those young studs hangin' around across the way all the time. You can't help but watchin' even when it interferes with your sleep, can you, Aunt Sally? [laughter] What I see is hot pants and no sense. Did you hear that thirteen-year-old girl of Alma's is in the family way? 122 You don't mean it! Followin' in her sister's tracks. Followin' in their mother's tracks to the welfare office. When we was young, things weren't so crazy. When we was young, we wasn't that young. These babies are playin' like adults. No, the church don't snag but a few. Most are right here on the streets doin' whatever they please. They can't go to church. Reverend Jones gonna bar the door to those toughs. That's wrong to...