I was born in a family of hustlers. My dads side was famous for it, ran their small side of town,treacherously with it. Ignorant, the lot of them, but I always held that secret pride within myself about them despite my mothers obvious disgust for them. Dad was born in a family of 11, he the youngest boy. He did what most boys in a small town did, join the local factory, provided for the family, and became a productive member of society. But he also had another side to him that he was born into and had neither desire nor thought to change.
They hustled. A lot. The meaning of hustling for the uneducated, is a polite way of saying, they ran scams. They ran them on the police, they ran them on their neighbors and businesses, but never their family. Family was always first. Besides, they could never get away with it with each other. They were all too good. Loyalty like no other was these band of hustlers. My grandfather taught them all very well even the girls.
Follow me over for a story to make you think about family.
I remember clearly the story my dad told us when we were in our early teens,about loyalty to family, him to his sister specifically, who was todays equivilent of a beast booster. The story goes as follows:
My Aunt Louie, who was a charming and beautiful black woman, stole items, took mens money and all around theif, had gotten herself in a little bit of trouble from some caper she was involved in. This part is not clear because my dad may not remember what her crime was or does not care to share, I don't know. But what she did landed her in the county jail two towns over and she was allowed to make a phone call. She decided she would call the baby boy, my dad, who had gotten married by this time and was somewhat respectable.
She called him up and told him to come and get her out of jail and that the police would let her out if a respectable person came and spoke up on her behalf. I have to preface this by saying, these two brother and sister are one year apart and frequently got into trouble together. My dad listened to my aunt about what she wanted him to say when he came. My dad got dressed, to the chagrine of my mother, and headed out the door to drive the 30 minutes to the county jail. This part also gets fuzzy since dad was around the age of 24, but what he did say was, he had no fear about lying to the police, he was born to lie to sucker police and he had an honest face, or so we were told.
He showed up at the jail with his work badge, so they would know he worked at the biggest plant in town. He took one look at my aunt behind the bars, she smiled and he commenced to telling them the biggest lie he could. He told them that he was my aunts husband. By the way, my aunt and dad look just alike. He then in short order produced a fake ID and other documents to prove he was a respected family member of his town. He then stated that he was going to promptly beat her, my aunt, once they got home for any and all illegal activity she had done. My dad said when he got done talking, the police were more sympathetic than he had ever heard them about a wayward wife.
Finally, my dad and aunt louie walked out of the jail, hand in hand and drove silently all the way until they reached their home county line. Dad said he checked the rearview many times that ride. He said his heart started to slow down as he reach the line. He also said that they started to laugh hysterically when they pulled up to my grandparents home. My aunt jumped out and said "I have to catch another sucker tonight to make up for what I lost today. Can you meet me at this bar around 10 pm tonight?" My dad sat silently while she ran around the back of the house and disappeared. That was their loyalty.
This is by no means a bang up of my family. They were good at what they did and many times they went to jail for petty crimes, never felonies. They always kept family first though and I love them for that. I could tell many a story about them being the best card sharks in town and surrounding counties, that they could kill anybody stupid enough to pick up a pool stick.
This is about loving people regardless of what they are and what they do. This is about the unconditional love we all want from people and some of us never get it. I just thought I would share this season some of my personal shit about family.