YEAR OF THE ROBOT

We wore Afro’s Bellbottom Jeans Ankle boots and Flagg Brothers Polyester one Piece Leisure Suits. Dr King’s voice still echoed in every ear.

We sometimes started a conversation with the word shit. Some were educated others went to work at Steel Factories, Car Assembly Plants and Railroads. We ate things like Fried Chicken, Hot water-Cornbread, and Neck bones, if you had a Uncle Jake like I did he would make homemade ice cream,

Our parents worked hard but with the drop of a needle of Teddy Pendergrass, they got down! And partied. We put are fist high in the air not in a bitter way but more like an antenna to say, “Here I am! And yes I am somebody”! The word nigga was or own inside joke because we knew when to use it and we also new who the niggas where.

They called us “Soul People” Everything we did had Soul to it, our walk, the talk the food we ate. Because it all came from a community that was not supposed to exists after all, we were America’s stepchildren. We had noting but the devices of ourselves and what we created was a world of Soul. Everyone wanted to be like us. Before to long it was the stepchild getting all the attention, How do you do that dance, teach me that hand shake, I’ve never heard it song like that before. Do you remember this one…”rapping? What’s rapping”? We were setting trends just by being ourselves.

Our Entertainers were just that they entertained us as we dealt with our daily ass kicking from the world. They did not raise us as children but their songs did provide a soundtrack for our life. I remember being mad at my sister because she new every word to Rappers Delight and I brought the record. My Father would say you can remember all that but you can’t remember your fractions? Yes Education was still king with the Soul People.

We loved going to school, but we hated schoolwork. I had friends that would get up at 6:30AM walk to school just to ditch every class. I would say you might as well stay home. Hell no missing a day was like missing a week, who got they ass kicked, who got caught smoking weed, so and so is now talking. School is were we picked up the tools that where going to shape us as individuals for the rest of our life inside and outside the classes.

My father and I would sit at the kitchen table working on my fractions and doing his own home work because he was determined to graduated from Collage hold two a jobs and help raise a family. And he did. Yeah the Soul People stood by their family’s back then niggas only left their family.

The summer night brought a slight breeze so with permission we were allowed to hang out at night under the streetlight, to hot to go to bed to hot to eat Fried Chicken. So while Kevin got his hair braided by fine ass Kathy, Earl came with the tunes on his box Kenny and I talked about each others mama until we started fighting, you would know you got a good one in when the other guy wanted to fight, and the other guy always wanted to fight me.

Under the street light and tons of love bugs some talked about their future life. Who they wanted to marry and what car they wanted to drive. We all hand dreams or plans to be something but nothing terrific. One boy named Barry talked about being the first black President. I just wanted to do anything to get some leg.

June 25, two weeks after my 41 birthday was the day The Great Michael Jackson died. But not just Michael Jackson an era died as well. Michael representing The Greats, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Johnnie Taylor, and Isaac Hayes gone. Yes there are a few of us left, but The Great Michael was our time line.

He was born to a poor family and they showed the world We may be down but were not out. I sometimes think The Great Michael Jackson wore that glove the same way we would put our fist in the air like an antenna to say “it’s me!” It was like Michael was saying It’s me I’m still here don’t get fooled by the glitz and the glam when I take this glove off I’m still one of you The Soul People.

The time we live in now the people communicate but are not connected. They are more like a race of robots that obey than humans that form an opinion. They are fed, not just food but information from music to what car to drive who to like, who to hate what when where. They sound the same. Soul People choose whom they wanted to be associated with and dictated what was next.

1971 The great Marvin Gaye wrote… The Ecology…but some know it as Mercy Mercy Me. When you listen to the song it’s weird because the song came out in 1971, Dr King was assassinated in 68, and we were at war, dope ran down the streets Harlem. The Black American didn’t have it so good. The Great Marvin wrote.” Oh, mercy mercy me Oh, things ain't what they used to be “ Marvin could’nt been talking about the sixties or the fifties when a Black American couldn’t even walk down the same street as a White American. Those where the worst times for a Black Americans and this is why like his pears is why he is the Great Marvin Gaye, it is because he wrote about the time we live in now, The year of the Robot, Mercy Mercy me.

Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be
No, no
Where did all the blue sky go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north, east, south, and sea
Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be
No, no
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas
Fish full of mercury
Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be
No, no
Radiation in the ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can you stand?