Blog 365

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 38 – Dish Towels as Capes

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 38 – Dish Towels as Capes

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 38 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

Inspiration to write comes from a number of places. For this blog I’ve been inspired by hip-hop artist Rick Chyme and producer David K. Manley of Man@Work Productions. Through a collaborative project titled #DailyPieces365 these two artists will release a new song every day for 365 consecutive days! Their impressive dedication has motivated me to write a new blog every day of 2018.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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You’d think pretending to be Superman around the house wouldn’t lead to getting a whooping. Especially since Supes is arguably the ultimate do-gooder.

When I was a really young child I spent a lot of time imagining myself as Superman flying though the sky. I wore a cape each time I did this. The problem was my cape was never an actual cape.

I would tie long-sleeved shirts around my neck. If I was wearing short sleeves I’d just pull my arms out and dangle the shirt over my back. That was my least favorite.

I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house growing up. When we’d sit down to eat my grandmother would drape a towel over my chest to prevent me from spilling food on clothes. She secured the towel behind my neck with a clothes pin. Often seconds after she’d do this I’d rotate the pin to the front so the towel dangled behind me, then run into the living room and “fly” on to the couch.

“Get back up to this table before I whoop your butt!” she’d shout, sometimes laughing afterward because I looked and behaved so ridiculously.

What would really tick her off, though? I consistently swiped her dish towels to use as my Superman cape. She’d be set to dry dishes only to notice it missing. Grandma always knew where to locate it. The towel was tucked into the back of my shirt as I flew around Metropolis.

A butt whooping wouldn’t hurt the real Superman.

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To Develop: Blog 365 Day 37 – Similar to Many

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 37 – Similar to Many

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 37 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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Superman was unquestionably my childhood hero. As much as I so desperately wanted to be him, I was more like his bumbling alter ego Clark Kent.

I didn’t wear oversized glasses with plastic frames. My eyesight’s always been great.

I wouldn’t say I was clumsy. Actually, I was pretty surefooted and athletic. Could I fly? Figuratively, yes. I could jump high and far, and was a shockingly fast runner.

I was, however, a tad bit awkward dressed in Khaki pants and sweater vests with loafers on my feet. My mom and big sisters dressed me in nice outfits, but my 1^st grade classmates sometimes laughed at what I wore as if I’d donned a clown costume. I never understood that.

My clothes were similar to many of my classmates who weren’t teased at all. I think being 1 of 5 Black children in the entire private school had a little to do with it.

Like Clark in the Superman movie, people would bump into me and not say excuse me or apologize. Most of the time they either didn’t see me or just crashed into me on purpose. What was really rude is how other children would purposely attempt to get me dirty. And my mother couldn’t afford for me to have a clean backup outfit underneath.

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Share your thoughts with me at info@mrjoewalker.com or on Twitter @mrjoewalker.

Visit MrJoeWalker.com for more great stories!

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 36 – Clark

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 36 – Clark

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 36 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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Sometimes I didn’t hear my mother. Sometimes I didn’t hear my grandmother. They could have been calling me at the same time and I wouldn’t have noticed.

When I was a child Superman got my undivided attention. If he was on television, in live action or cartoon form, I was oblivious to everything going on around me. That included my mother and grandmother asking me questions or commanding me not to sit so close to the TV because it would ruin my eyesight.

The Man of Steel was unquestionably my hero. I wanted nothing more than to have his ability to fly, to be super strong and fast, and to frolic through my everyday life wearing a cape. Oh, I also wanted his power to attract girls with the greatest of ease.

Superman could stop anything but kryptonite. My weakness was drawing unwanted attention. Regrettably, my female peers had no problem exploiting it while pelting me with insults. I was quiet pervious to pain.

As much as I so desperately wanted to be Superman, I was more like his awkward alter ego Clark Kent. At least that’s how imagined people viewed me. And there was no fancy spandex suit and cape hidden underneath my clothes to change their impression of me.

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Share your thoughts with me at info@mrjoewalker.com or on Twitter @mrjoewalker.

Visit MrJoeWalker.com for more great stories!

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 35 – Justice League Didn’t Have My Back

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 35 – Justice League Didn’t Have My Back

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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There wasn’t much to load in my backpack as a 1^st grader. But I carried one anyway.

I’d usually haul a book or 2 borrowed from the school library, typical school supplies, and a toy I wasn’t supposed to bring. Most often it was my Superman action figure, maybe Batman and Robin, or sometimes all 3.

My notebook of drawing paper got stuffed in there too. If you’re familiar with Charlie Brown and The Peanuts characters, my notebook and I could be likened to Linus and his security blanket.

I was always writing and drawing in that thing. My imagination didn’t have an off switch so this provided me a place to contain my loose ideas. Most times I would write stories about my classmates and literally draw them into it. I didn’t share these stories with them, though. Not at first.

Being an inner city child attending a private school was strike one. Being Black with a documented overactive imagination was strikes 2 and 3.

After my backpack was loaded I’d grab a jacket if needed, make sure the pennies were straight in my brown leather loafers before putting them on, and head off to the corner of my yard to await the bus and unwelcomed looks I’d get after boarding.

The Justice League didn’t have my back. They just rode on it.

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Visit MrJoeWalker.com for more great stories!

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 34 – Chocolate and Mud

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 34 – Chocolate and Mud

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 34 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

Inspiration to write comes from a number of places. For this blog I’ve been inspired by hip-hop artist Rick Chyme and producer David K. Manley of Man@Work Productions. Through a collaborative project titled #DailyPieces365 these two artists will release a new song every day for the next 365 consecutive days! Their impressive dedication has motivated me to write a new blog every day of 2018.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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I lived in a considerably urban area of town but was bussed to a more suburban area for school. I attended a private school during 1^st grade and the bus I rode made a few stops for transfers along the way.

I could tell by the looks on all the children’s faces I saw every morning that none of them wanted to ride into my neighborhood to pick me up. I’d get on the bus with them peering at me as though I was putting them in eminent danger. And I wasn’t. I just wanted to get to school, get it over with, and back home to watch cartoons just like them.

Once I was on the bus I’d head to the back. No one else would be sitting there until other Black students got on at transfer locations.

At first it felt more comfortable sitting in back because, before I knew what being shy and having stage fright was, I felt unsettled when numerous people all gawked at me at once. After understanding being Black made me different, and in some places unwelcomed, it became a place to mask myself from unpleasant stares and eye-rolling.

When I was joined by other Black children it wasn’t any better. They were from better neighborhoods than mine. Though we shared skin color and historical oppression, their Black was chocolate while mine was mud.

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Share your thoughts with me at info@mrjoewalker.com or on Twitter @mrjoewalker.

Visit MrJoeWalker.com for more great stories!

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 33 – Full Reign of the Bus

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 33 – Full Reign of the Bus

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 33 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

Inspiration to write comes from a number of places. For this blog I’ve been inspired by hip-hop artist Rick Chyme and producer David K. Manley of Man@Work Productions. Through a collaborative project titled #DailyPieces365 these two artists will release a new song every day for the next 365 consecutive days! Their impressive dedication has motivated me to write a new blog every day of 2018.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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At one point during my childhood I was 1 of 5 Black students in an entire school. I was also 1 of a few on school bus.

I lived in a considerably urban area and rode the bus every morning. It made a couple pit stops for transfers before arriving at my school. It seemed like lots of Black students got on and off along the way.

One or 2 Black students sat in random spots near the front. All the rest of the Black students sat in the back. I was among them only because I was back there trying to hide. I hadn’t yet learned about Rosa Parks. Once I had it changed how I felt about their preferred seating arrangement.

These students weren’t forced to sit back there. They had full reign of the bus. And here was this tale of an older Black lady who was willing to be arrested because she was too tired and weary to care about the law. A foolish law at that. One that, because of her skin color, she had to sit in the rear until one day…she just didn’t.

Black people actually died fighting for equal rights, one of those being able to pick and choose where to fold your body on a bus ride.

It made me wonder if these students were unaware, didn’t care, or just conditioned to fall back.

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Share your thoughts with me at info@mrjoewalker.com or on Twitter @mrjoewalker.

Visit MrJoeWalker.com for more great stories!

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 32 – Just a Blemish

To Develop: Blog 365 Day 32 – Just a Blemish

By Jiddoe S'Phatt

Warmest greetings! My name is Jiddoe S’Phatt. Welcome to day 32 of “To Develop: Blog 365”.

Inspiration to write comes from a number of places. For this blog I’ve been inspired by hip-hop artist Rick Chyme and producer David K. Manley of Man@Work Productions. Through a collaborative project titled #DailyPieces365 these two artists will release a new song every day for the next 365 consecutive days! Their impressive dedication has motivated me to write a new blog every day of 2018.

A little piece of me goes into each entry I write. I hope you enjoy this one!

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Learning I was different didn’t happen right away. It took some time.

As an adult I’ve often been the only or maybe 1 of few Black people in a room. I never walk in looking to be treated differently. I enter treating everyone equally. Letting my personality shine sometimes helps take the emphasis off my skin color.

When I started school many years ago not many cared how outgoing I was. The children in my class were tough enough. The parents and teachers always gave me a difficult exam.

During kindergarten and 1^st grade I was 1 of 5 Black students in an entire school. To those parents who frowned on my attendance I was just a blemish on an otherwise pristine class photo.

Teachers and parents spoke slowly to me, overemphasizing their words as if there was a language barrier. I was a Black kid who rode the bus from the inner city to school every morning. I wasn’t being shuttled in from Spain or some indigenous island.

I still didn’t get it right away. I’d gone to a daycare where children of all walks of life played together. Once in school all but a few avoided me. I was told everyone enjoyed me being there and that I was well liked, yet I couldn’t help noticing the disgusted looks.

I’d learn their glances meant I didn’t belong.

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Share your thoughts with me at info@mrjoewalker.com or on Twitter @mrjoewalker.

Visit MrJoeWalker.com for more great stories!