My mom said to pay ‘em no nevermind. They was just men with time on their hands and nobut themselves to think of. They was just speaking with their dicks, mom said, and their aint no sense or thought in what they was saying. I’d never heard my mom use that word before. I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t.
We was near the Texaco station, on the opposite side of the street and outside Martha’s bakery. We’d been buying bread, something nice to go with our dinner. Pop had said he liked that bread made with cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds and mom had gone out of her way to get some. And these guys across the road started up with their wolf-whistling when they saw us.
They was all sorts, those guys. Men that were old enough they could be my grandaddy or young enough they could be my brother, and they was everything in between, too. They didn’t look like they even belonged together. They shouted over to us and called us pretty and sweetheart. I thought maybe they’d been drinking some.
To tell truth, I didn’t really see the harm. They was no different from the boys at school, boys standing at the school gates waiting for girls to pass, and they was allus smoking cigarettes and blowing showy smoke rings into the air, and they sometimes said as how they had kisses saved up for Carly or Bren or Susie. I kinda liked it when I was one of the girls they named.
Mom took my hand and she pulled me away. All men is just fools, she said. They aint worth the listening to. You pay attention to what I’m saying, girl.
They was whistling and clapping till we turned a corner and it was suddenly quiet again and I could hear mom’s breath coming quick and short, and I could hear her shoes squeaking when she walked and the shush shush of her skirt adjusting to her thickened hips with each step. She still held my hand in hers and she was holding it a little tight and I wanted to tell her so she wouldn’t.
There’s this one boy at school and his name’s Les and I arranged to meet him once at the end of the day. He had his own car, a beat up French thing. The doors wouldn’t open and we had to climb in through the rolled down windows. We drove out of town, just to where the houses stopped and the flat laid out fields began. He pulled off the road and we started kissing and touching and he unbuttoned my blouse so he could see my tits in my bra. I don’t think he knew what to do then. We sat for a few minutes and then I buttoned up my blouse again and we drove back to the school. Now he waits for me at the gates and he calls me gorgeous and he winks and smiles and I feel kinda excited in my tummy and light-headed.
Boys is only after one thing, my mom tells me when she gets her breath back and there’s a distance between us and the whistling.
She don’t say exactly what it is they is after, but I know what mom means, and I still don’t see the harm.
Patricia Ann McNair 
My mom said to pay ‘em no nevermind. They was just men with time on their hands and nobut themselves to think of. They was just speaking with their dicks, mom said, and their aint no sense or thought in what they was saying. I’d never heard my mom use that word before. I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t.
We was near the Texaco station, on the opposite side of the street and outside Martha’s bakery. We’d been buying bread, something nice to go with our dinner. Pop had said he liked that bread made with cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds and mom had gone out of her way to get some. And these guys across the road started up with their wolf-whistling when they saw us.
They was all sorts, those guys. Men that were old enough they could be my grandaddy or young enough they could be my brother, and they was everything in between, too. They didn’t look like they even belonged together. They shouted over to us and called us pretty and sweetheart. I thought maybe they’d been drinking some.
To tell truth, I didn’t really see the harm. They was no different from the boys at school, boys standing at the school gates waiting for girls to pass, and they was allus smoking cigarettes and blowing showy smoke rings into the air, and they sometimes said as how they had kisses saved up for Carly or Bren or Susie. I kinda liked it when I was one of the girls they named.
Mom took my hand and she pulled me away. All men is just fools, she said. They aint worth the listening to. You pay attention to what I’m saying, girl.
They was whistling and clapping till we turned a corner and it was suddenly quiet again and I could hear mom’s breath coming quick and short, and I could hear her shoes squeaking when she walked and the shush shush of her skirt adjusting to her thickened hips with each step. She still held my hand in hers and she was holding it a little tight and I wanted to tell her so she wouldn’t.
There’s this one boy at school and his name’s Les and I arranged to meet him once at the end of the day. He had his own car, a beat up French thing. The doors wouldn’t open and we had to climb in through the rolled down windows. We drove out of town, just to where the houses stopped and the flat laid out fields began. He pulled off the road and we started kissing and touching and he unbuttoned my blouse so he could see my tits in my bra. I don’t think he knew what to do then. We sat for a few minutes and then I buttoned up my blouse again and we drove back to the school. Now he waits for me at the gates and he calls me gorgeous and he winks and smiles and I feel kinda excited in my tummy and light-headed.
Boys is only after one thing, my mom tells me when she gets her breath back and there’s a distance between us and the whistling.
She don’t say exactly what it is they is after, but I know what mom means, and I still don’t see the harm.