Where’s the Rap Station? & Pitch Black!

So Mark has been working in Montpelier (the state capitol) the past couple of weeks renovating a 1700s two family house. He walks to the main drag to get lunch from one of the food carts. One day, he sees this Black guy shuffling along toward him. This guy has his hat on backwards and is wearing slouchy pants (that's all the description I could get from Mark). So this guy looks up, sees Mark, starts grinning, and jogs toward him. He greets Mark warmly and says "Hey man! You are the first Black person I've seen in months!" Apparently this guy is in some kind of program (that's all the information Mark got). Mark advises him there are a couple of Black folks around, but not many. This guy had never been to the Northeast before and hates it. He then asks Mark "where can I find the Rap station?" Mark laughs and says, not around here. If he was a little closer to Burlington he would get a mixed station that occasionally plays top 40 hip hop. The guy was deflated after this news. He was from California and was familiar with my home town in the Central Valley (which is very small). So I told Mark we should invite him over for dinner, or go meet him for drinks or something. But Mark didn't get his name or number or give the guy our contact info. Mark just shrugs and says "I know where to find him". We'll see…

 

Then last Friday night, Mark takes me to his friend's house. I've been hearing about this friend Bart for a couple of months. I've only met him and his girlfriend once. They seem like a nice young couple. Yes, they are white. The stories Mark tells about them are very interesting. Apparently Bart modified a truck by taking the back and sides off the bed of the truck. They bolted a couch (yes a sofa/couch) to the bed of the truck with seat belts. They go up further in the mountains, gleefully going through mud and rocks, with the truck and someone strapped to the couch in the bed. One time they flipped the truck. Fortunately, because the guy was strapped in, he didn't get hurt. Another time he and Mark went quadding in the mountains. The truck stalled and wouldn't start so they had to walk back. Mark said it was pitch black and Bart just said "follow me, my house is right over there" while he points into the pitch black. Mark was doubtful but had no choice but to follow Bart. Guess what, Bart was right, thankfully.

So, we went over Bart's for homemade chili that he and his girlfriend made. I wasn't sure what to expect with all the stories Mark told me. Plus Mark warns on the way over, that they are very county. I had seen the outside of the house only. I saw two cats and two dogs inside the house when we got there. They interacted with the animals a lot. I decided if they didn't wash their hands that I wasn't going to eat. Well, they washed their hands before serving us. And the chili - It was pretty good. Bart's brother and several friends stopped by after dinner. We had a great time chatting. Bart's brother entertained us with stories of his cows getting into the college cornfield and raising and butchering 400 chickens this past summer. He's about to start milking cows on a farm this fall. Every morning at 4am… I can't imagine.

So when we left it was pitch black (no street lights in the country). Got me thinking about those scary movies where for someone unknown or obscure reason people are in the middle of nowhere driving in the dark and get attacked by some alien/monster/maniac. Guess who's always the first to die… Black people! I don't think I spoke on the way home because I was praying to the good Lord not to let us have some mysterious car trouble. There is no way I would walk the several miles home or the several miles back to Bart's or the several miles to the nearest gas station. Plus there was no way I was staying in the truck in the pitch black by myself. Thank goodness we made it home without incident. I was not interested in being in the headlines as the petrified Black woman who perished under mysterious (or not so mysterious) circumstances on a pitch black country road in Vermont…