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Tayari's Blog: A New Jersey Moment

Posted by TayariJones on October 15, 2007 11:25 AM
Filed under Jersey Journals

New Jersey residents are required to move our cars from one side of the street to the other each day in order to accommodate the street sweeper. (I have watched the sweeper several times, and I haven't noticed any difference in the street cleanliness.) Anyway, I was out this morning in an outfit that is more formal that pajamas and less formal than, say, sweatpants. It was 8am and I just needed to get my car to the safe side of the street to avoid a $45 ticket.

Anyway, I noticed cars backed up behind a short yellow school bus. This being Jersey, everyone was honking like they got paid by the decibel. The school bus was parked in front of an apartment building with its stop signs out. Eventually a kind of stocky man wearing an undershirt and pair of drawstring pants came hustling out with a little girl in his arms. His biceps were covered with elaborate tattoos featuring the suffering head of Jesus and assorted pin-ups. He carried the girl carefully; her posture suggested that she was developmentally delayed.

Observing the line of honking cars, the tattooed gentleman covered the girl's eyes and proceed to make a really vulgar hand gesture. (I was clutching at my pearls!) Then, he carried the girl onto the bus. When the door hissed shut, he blew a dozen kisses at the window as the bus drove away. Once he was certain that his sweet girl was out of eye and ear shot, he made the gesture twice more and included the verbal translation, before returning to the apartment.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

December 13, 2007 02:00 AM