I left the house bundled up like an Eskimo and headed to school. It was freezing cold outside and everything was covered in glistening, white snow. I had on my new, knee high, chocolate brown, suede boots with the rabbit fur-lining. I loved those boots. Mom tried to buy me what she liked to call “practical boots” which translated to big, ugly, waterproof, and especially ugly, what I liked to call “clod-hoppers”. I protested until I got what I wanted.
I have to admit it was scary walking to school all alone with snow up to your knees at five years old. The snow seemed like it was as tall as me in some areas. We had just moved into an area called Bexley on the east side of Columbus. Our townhouse was really nice. Mom was working for the post office and it was just two of us. We were doing pretty damn good.
We had new furniture, new TV’s, and beautiful paintings. Mom had a new car and even my bedroom set was beautiful. Imported all the way from Mexico, It was neon yellow with bright tangerine flowers’ surrounding the antique brass handles with lime green leaves on the stems of the flowers. It was a huge set and had a lot of pieces: two big bookcases with storage underneath them, a desk with drawers on the side, two nightstands, and a headboard. I loved it. I had my own room. My mother had exquisite taste and wasn’t afraid to pick things that others considered bold or risky.
I had to think real hard about where my school was and how to get there. I had a bad sense of direction even back then. My school was made of red bricks with a big American flag on the front lawn. The only thing I remember about the school itself was the long, lonely walk to and from there and the fact that I was the darkest and only biracial child in the school. Although I was only five years old, I felt like everyone knew I was half black and had a problem with it – perhaps I was just being paranoid, but I just never felt accepted.
One of the things I remember most about my “all white” school was the time I pissed in my favorite boots on the way home and ruined them. I almost made it to the front door – I could see it up ahead as I trudged through the thick white snow. I kept telling myself, “Angela, you can make it, you can make it”. Look the door knocker is just a few yards away”. But it was so cold and I had held it for so long that I couldn’t wait any longer. A stream of warm pee ran down my leg, through my pants and down into my new fur boots. Once it started, I just stood there like a pole and let it all run out. There was nothing else I could do once it started and at that point there was no need to run. I knew they were ruined and I just wanted to get in the house and get out of the cold, wet clothes and into my house.
My mother tried everything to get that smell out of those boots including cans of Lysol, and soap and water, but nothing worked. They were never the same and we ended up throwing them away.
Bexley was supposed to be an upscale, classy neighborhood. However, we didn’t live there for long because we got robbed. I was at school and Mom was at work when it happened. They took everything except the carpet off the floors. They stole both our color TV’s, the new bike I got for Christmas, and even stole my mothers maternity clothes, all during broad daylight.
After the robbery, we moved back to the ghetto, to an all African American neighborhood on the other end of the East side of Columbus. The huge duplex we moved into was across the street from the Preston’s. It had an attic, an upstairs, downstairs, a basement and a big front porch. The attic itself was bigger than some studio apartments, or at least it seemed like that to a five year old.