There are dates and events that you never forget. I’m not talking about obvious ones like birthdays, anniversaries, holidays or graduations. I mean those occurrences that mark milestones in one’s personal growth; dates and events that are the result of God’s grace and the decisions that we make. I have clear memories of new jobs, trips, songs and special occasions, but the night that foreshadowed my first significant life change occurred on August 17th.
It had to be about 11pm when I hopped in the blue Corsica with my homeboy, June. We went to pick up Anthony and his 12 year-old cousin, Mike. We always let Mike hang with us. Whether answering his questions about history, math or how to talk to girls, hanging with a 6th grader did wonders for our 17 year-old egos. Ego honored, my mission was to drive through East Orange one last time before the start of a new day. So, after surveying Doddtown, which was pretty quiet, Mike and I decided that Central Avenue should be our next stop.
The Corsica drifted past Main Street and across South Harrison, finally arriving at the corner of Central Avenue. We made a left, and were met by streetlights and neon store signs that transformed the city’s busiest thoroughfare into a veritable Times Square. I’m prone to speed, but tonight; the last one I would spend in East Orange for months to come, it felt like we were floating from street to street. We passed Movin’ Records, followed by Club 88 and then hit a red light at the corner of Halsted. I peered to the right, and reminisced on the Saturday afternoon that Halsted’s newly -famous resident, Queen Latifah, came into Movin’ Records and asked, “is my record here yet?” Farewell East Orange. Next, we sailed across South Arlington, the block that would eventually house The Booga Basement; a small studio nestled near Roy Rogers, and where the Fugees would create The Score. Seconds later, Zeke emerged from a desolate side street.
Startled, out-of-breath and in need of help, Zeke sang a different tune as he approached the car. He had always been funny and likeable, so giving him a ride wasn’t a problem. Zeke was about 16, but we could never figure out why he was rarely in school - or in town for that matter. He got in the car and explained that he had been hustling and was just robbed off of Central Avenue. He had lost 700 dollars. We drove a few lights past Kevin Booker’s block and the car gradually turned into the set of Menace II Society. Zeke begged, “Yo, take me to my mother’s house, I need to get her car and my gun!” Years before Lorenz Tate’s big screen debut as O Dog, Zeke reclined in the Corsica and pronounced, “They got me, so I’ma rob somebody tonight!!!” For his next scene, he got out of the car a few blocks south of Munn, and disappeared into the night; leaving behind his definitive ghetto credo: “They got me, so I’ma rob somebody tonight.”
I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia the next day and began my freshman year at Morehouse College. Surrounded by red clay, hundreds of strangers and residing in a dorm called Unit 3; I made new friends and replaced the blue Corsica with my feet. More importantly, I was immersed in what seemed a ton of new information. My first year of college was the first of many significant life changes. I began to see life differently, and as the months went by, the neon and traffic lights of Central Avenue lost their appeal. I returned home the following May to learn that Zeke was in now in jail. A recent ride down Central Avenue revealed that Movin’ Records, Queen Latifah, The Fugees, Kevin Booker and Zeke have since moved on. Their transcendence makes Central Avenue a metaphorical runway in the flight of life. Within an instant, the decisions we make determine the direction of our lives. To all students and non-students matriculating from grade-to-grade, or through life’s changes, may your decisions give rise to monumental dates, events and results that reach far beyond your present Avenue. 1.
Copyright © Kobie Brown 2008. All rights reserved.
Acknowledgements:
Njeri Brown
All of my collegiate compadres
The little homeys
Mr. & Mrs. Dana Carvalho – celebrating their first week of marriage New Jersey
Lauryn Hill “Welcome Back”
My blessings and challenges
