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. Would you go out with a white boy for five dollars? Al-though I did not take the  white boy up on his offer, he wonfiguratively in the sexual contest, for he seduced me intothinking about him unnamed and only partly knownthroughout the more than forty years since that chilling en-counter.Even as I write this, I recognize that he has seduceda portion of my imagination.Because I am not likely ever tocross paths with him again, I have here given him immortal-[ 46 Would you go out with a white boy for five dollars?ity.And still he fascinates me.For all my later-learned knowl-edge of his history and of how sexual race relations work inthe South, I am still struck by the daring with which thissomewhat timid sounding  white boy made his request anddisappeared.Have I occasionally haunted his imagination inthe same way? Or did he just find another black female bodylater that evening or the next evening and notch his sexualgun with one more black conquest? Did it matter to him atall that one lone black female in Tuscaloosa said  No ?Would he have been shocked to discover that I was only in thesixth grade, and that he could have run the risk of statutoryrape? Would you go out with a white boy for five dollars? No. But perhaps, finally, it doesn t matter, for I amnonetheless caught in the exploitive dynamic that allowedthis  white boy to ask his question.This dynamic is a part ofthe South and its history and is something most black South-erners are still trying to make peace with.Although I believeI have made my peace with the episode, and while I ampleased that I had been conditioned by my family and com-munity to shoot back that emphatic  No, it was ultimatelyperhaps as effective as spitting into a whirlwind to change itscourse.47 ]CHAPTER SIXPorch-Sitting as aCreative Southern Traditionhave recently been reflecting on the significance ofIthe porch in the South, on what that space allows andwhat it means.I have been thinking about the history of shar-ing and interaction that characterizes porch space in South-ern culture, about the voices that bring the space to life,about what this space has meant historically and creatively toalmost everyone in the Deep South.Before proceeding, how-ever, a definition is in order.Throughout this discussion, theword  porch refers to the physical attachment that pro-trudes from the front of the first level of many houses andbusiness establishments in the South.I emphasize front andfirst level because I do not wish to identify wraparoundporches, or verandas, or balconies with the activities I de-scribe; I am concerned with those spaces that face directly onthe street, with an unobstructed view of traffic along the roador walkway or, as came later, sidewalks.Such porches werecertainly a phenomenon of the nineteenth century, but I amprimarily concerned with the time period in the first five orsix decades of the twentieth century, where yards might havebeen a solid expanse of dirt and where walkways would prob-ably not have been paved.The porch is usually not enclosed,[ 48Porch-Sitting as a Creative Southern Traditionthough it may be screened in, and it is covered by an exten-sion from the roof of the house, with appropriate supportingjoists.Frequently, house owners add swings suspended bychains from the overhead beams, accordingly called  porchswings. But rocking chairs and straight-backed chairs are theusual furniture, and of course people can sit on the porchsteps. Porch-sitting is an activity in which people can partici-pate from early morning until late at night.All they have todo is plop their bodies down, engage someone in conver-sation, and the activity is on [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]