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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Mist' Jordan

I love the janitor in my school. He's an anemic-looking man of indeterminate age, greying and a little stooped. He calls me Puddin'. As in "Hey Puddin'!" I've never been called Puddin' before. Maybe he calls all white women Puddin'. I wouldn't know. His name is Mr. Jordan, which is actually pronounced more Mist' Jordan. We follow a script whenever we meet:

Mr. Jordan: "Hey Puddin'!"
Me: "Mornin', Mist' Jordan!"

Once a week or so he propositions me, normally as I bring the students into the lunchroom. We also have a script for this interaction:

Mr. Jordan: "Hey! You! Puddin'!"
Me: "What you want?"
Mr. Jordan: "You, me, Friday, Sat'day, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday." (Holds up 5 fingers.)
Me: "Yeah?"
Mr. Jordan: "You, me, Sou' Carolina, beach."
Me: "You payin' for this?"
Mr. Jordan, pretending to be hurt: "How'm I sposed to get da money?"
Me: "When you get the money, Mist' Jordan, then let me know." I walk away with my students, laughing.
Mr. Jordan: "Hey Puddin'!" (Starts mumbling to himself and walks away)
My students stare at the both of us as they hear this exchange. I would never let them call me Puddin', and they've never heard me lapse into the more casual speech Mist' Jordan inspires.
I saw Mist' Jordan this morning, and we only had one variation in the script:

Mr. Jordan coming with mop to clean up yet another mess in my classroom: "It's early this morning, Puddin'."
Me: "Yes. Yes it is."

1 comments:

Victoria Blanchard said...

Wow. Not much else to say about that!
I am so glad you're keeping record of all these great stories though!