Dedicated
to

Esperanza
Aquino
Aug 9, 1921
Sept 24,1983

Welcome to Keenos Korner

 

Here's a story about someone I knew very well.

"LEFTY"

 "Little Black Sambo! .... Little Black Sambo!"

The group of kids called him as they laughed and pointed towards him. Lefty was remembering an incident that happened several years ago when he was in first grade. This is something that he would never forget. This was a thought that he had on this day while running home for lunch as he did every day. 

Sometimes he would imagine he was Jim Thorpe, the great American Indian athlete, running great distances to his home on the reservation. Lefty had heard that story on TV. The reason he did not see the movie was because the family TV did not have a picture, only sound. He sat closely with his ear to the tattered fabric that covered the speaker and imagined seeing Burt Lancaster starring as Jim Thorpe.

  "Little Black Sambo! ....... Little Black Sambo!"

His mind drifted back again. Lefty could not understand why they would be so mean. He didn't do anything to them. What he did understand was that they were repeating the name of the little boy in the story that their teacher just read to them in class. That was 1959, and he was 6 years old. He was too young to know of a growing Civil Rights movement, which would soon be front-page news across the nation. He knew nothing about discrimination. What he knew was what he saw and he saw that groups of kids did get together and make fun of the less fortunate ones, the short ones, the heavy ones, the poor ones, the dark ones. 

At this time in his school, which was in a small unincorporated community 20 miles east of Los Angeles, a children's story titled " Little Black Sambo " apparently was acceptable reading material in his class, at his school and in the district. It didn't matter then and it wasn't an issue. 

Lefty's skin color was dark but not as dark as Little Black Sambo's, as illustrated in the book. He just might have been the darkest kid at Glenelder Elementary. He was not black; in fact, there were not any blacks at the school. The enrollment was primarily Caucasian with a small percentage of Mexicans. His father was an immigrant from the Philippine Islands. His mother was of Mexican and Yaqui Indian descent. He was born the eighth of nine children. His brothers and sisters ranged in color from tanned Caucasian to the dark brown of a Pacific Islander. He was the darkest one. Being made fun of, because of his skin color was nothing new to him. The earliest memory of his life and only memory of his Mexican grandmother was her calling him

" Negrito ". He was not yet 3 years old. He never really knew her as she passed away soon thereafter.

 Lefty very rarely ate lunch at school. He enjoyed coming home for lunch. He had it all planned out. When the lunch bell rang, he started running. He allowed eight minutes to run the mile or so to his house. He would spend twenty minutes to eat lunch and relax, then eight minutes to run back. That would leave him ten or fifteen minutes to play before the bell rang. What was most appealing to him about going home for lunch were the meals that his mother would have waiting for him. One of his favorites was scrambled eggs that were pre-mixed with a little tomato sauce, served with some warm homemade flour tortillas. Tomato sauce was a staple in his home, not only did it add flavor to their meals but most importantly it was cheap. His mom found many uses for it. She used it in macaroni and cheese, pork with peas, chicken necks and backs, calabasas, ground beef and potatoes and many more dishes. Another lunch favorite was a fried bologna sandwich. She would slice it thick and fry it until it deformed and a mound appeared in the center, and there was a hint of black from being burned slightly around the edges, she would put mustard and cheese on it and serve it on day old bread. You would never find that on the school menu.

                                                                                   Lefty knew he could not do anything about his skin color. That issue paled in comparison to his biggest fear. It also did not bother him much that kids knew he put baseball cards inside his shoes to cover the fifty-cent piece size holes in the middle of the soles. It was embarrassing when the cards wore out, and pieces fell out. His brothers taught him about putting baseball cards in their holy shoes. They also told him not to use the good baseball player's cards like Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente, but to only use the crummy players, and average players who they always had an abundance of.

 
What Lefty feared the most, was that his classmates would find out that his underwear was held up by a safety pin. When elastic loses it's life it loses its effectiveness and there just is not any cling to it. The elastic waistband becomes loose and wavy and useless. His mom told him to use a safety pin to hold them up. He feared they would flop over his pants so he overcompensated by pinning them very tight. So tight that he created stretch marks around his waist that he would have all his life. On occasion the pin would become undone while playing and accidentally poke him. He would run to the restroom and fix it. As far as he knew no one ever found out. At least they did not make fun of him because of it. In the back of his mind he always knew that Jim Thorpe had it worse. That Jackie Robinson endured. Thank God for heroes.

Editors note: Since the circulation of the book "Little Black Sambo" has all been eliminated from today's school reading list, the Neen Tribune is posting the contents of this controversial book for the benefit of the Clan's younger generation. 

If you would like to read it please click on link 


"Little Black Sambo"