Home > Work > One Crazy Summer (Gaither Sisters, #1)
1 " It was a strange, wonderful feeling. To discover eyes upon you when you expected no one to notice you at all. "
― Rita Williams-Garcia , One Crazy Summer (Gaither Sisters, #1)
2 " The last thing Pa and Big Ma wanted to hear was how we made a grand Negro spectacle of ourselves thirty thousand feet up in the air around all these white people. "
3 " If you knew what I knew, seen what I've seen, you wouldn't be so quick to pull the plow. "
4 " That was how I knew Sister Mukumbu was a real teacher, aside from her welcoming smile and her blackboard penmanship. She asked a teacher’s type of question. The kind that says: Join in. "
5 " Mission Impossible "
6 " I remember a time when smoke filled the house. Not coughing smoke but smoke from a woman’s smooth-voiced singing, with piano, bass, and drums. All together these sounds made smoke. Uncle Darnell would say, “You can’t remember that. You were two. Three, maybe.” But I do. I still see, hear, and feel bits and flashes. The sounds of musical smoke. "
7 " Star Trek. "
8 " Cecile "
9 " Cecile carried on a full conversation, on and on "
10 " There was also one Anthony, whose mama could spell, and one Antnee, whose mama couldn’t. It "
11 " Although I didn’t hear the door swing "
12 " I didn’t want to say Big Ma was right. Cecile was no kind of mother. Cecile didn’t want us. Cecile was crazy. I didn’t have to. "
13 " Crazy. "
14 " We all have our la-la-la song. The thing we do when the world isn't singing a nice tune to us. We sing our own nice tune to drown out ugly. "
15 " A name is important. It isn't something you drop in the litter basket or on the ground. Your name is now people know you. The very mention of your name makes a picture spring to mind, whether it's a picture of clashing fists or a mighty mountain that can't be knocked down. Your name is who you are and how you're known even when you do something great or something dumb. "
16 " Saying "please" without saying it to someone you don't want to say "please" to in the first place tops the list of hard. "
17 " I just took the box and nodded, because that's how you treat crazy people. You nod and count down twenty-seven days for crazy to come to an end. "
18 " Cecile made it sound like it was no big deal. "I've been fighting for freedom all my life." But she wasn't talking about protest signs, standing up to the Man, and knowing your rights. She was talking about her life. Just her. Not the people. "
19 " That was how I knew Sister Mukumbo was a real teacher, aside from her welcoming smile and her blackboard penmanship. She asked a teacher's type of question. The kind that says: Join in. "
20 " We didn’t come for the revolution. We came for breakfast. "