By Chris Chilcote
“City-wide Contest.
Beautify Your Neighborhood.
First Prize: A street fair with free rides and free food.”
I read the poster on the telephone pole one more time. Then I look up and down my street. Broken glass, pieces of paper, and cigarette butts are everywhere. It doesn’t look like a prizewinner to me.
I run to our house and tell Momma about the contest.
“Momma, how can we win this contest?” I ask.
“I don’t know, Jamal,” she answers. “I guess you’ll have to think. If Thurgood Marshall could think about important laws, I’ll bet you can think about this contest.”
I think about that contest for a long time. Then I get an idea. I know what I can do. I grab our worn broom and rusty dustpan. I start at the front door and I sweep all the trash into a pile.
“Boy, what you doing all that work for?” asks old Mr. Washington from next door.
I tell him about the contest.
“You know that it’s just gonna to be dirty again tomorrow,” he says.
“I know,” I say, “but I read that one lady, Rosa Parks, had the strength to fight a bad law. If she can be strong, so can I.”
“Fool young’un,” Mr. Washington says, but, in a minute, he brings out a battered old trash can.
“You better put that trash in here ‘fore it blows everywhere,” he says. “But, mark my words, it’ll be just as bad tomorrow.”
When tomorrow comes, I get up and look out the window. Mr. Washington is right. I see torn paper, broken glass, and cigarette butts on our sidewalk. I feel sad. Then I think of Ruby Bridges, who walked through a crowd of angry people just to go to a better school. She didn’t give up and I won’t either.
After breakfast, I grab our broom and dustpan again.
“Hey, man,” says my friend, Carlos, as he walks up the street. He drops a crumpled paper cup on the ground.
“No,” I say, pointing to the cup. I tell him about the contest. I tell him it takes a strong person to win.
“I think you crazy, man,” Carlos says, but he picks up the cup and throws it in my pile.
When old Mr. Washington comes out, he just shakes his head, but he’s dragged out the battered trash can – and a push broom.
“Ain’t no young fella gonna have a cleaner sidewalk than me,” he says.
I just smile and he winks back.
“Goodness me, what do I see?” asks Miz Jenkins. She’s our neighbor on the other side. “Two men working hard on a hot, sunny day. You know it’s just gonna get dirty again.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say. Then I tell her about the contest.
“Well, it’s a start, but you more than clean, boy. You need flowers,” Miz Jenkins says.
Flowers! Now I get sad again. Where am I going to get flowers? I tell Miz Jenkins that if Jackie Robinson could fight to play baseball, I can fight to win the contest. But, I worry about flowers.
back to Parents and Children Together Online Issue 9
Comments or Questions?
Parents and Children Together Online
The Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication
2805 East 10th Street, Suite 140
Bloomington, IN 47408-2698
reading@indiana.edu
back to Parents and Children Together Online
Copyright Notice: Please note that the contents of Parents and Children Together Online and its associated web pages are copyright 2004 EDINFO Press and are not to be reproduced in any form (including CD-ROM) without the express permission of EDINFO Press.