One Crazy Summer

“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.”

This quote captures Louis Gaither and Big Ma's traditional perspectives of what it means to be an African American—not drawing attention to yourself. Their ideas about black identity were outdated by the 1950s, when African Americans brought attention to themselves to fight for their rights.

“Mom invites your friends inside when it’s raining. Mama burns your ears with the hot comb to make your hair look pretty for class picture day. Ma is sore and worn out from wringing your wet clothes and hanging them to dry; Ma needs peace and quiet at the end of the day. We don’t have one of those. We have a statement of fact.”

Here, Delphine highlights the difference between a biological mother and a mom. When Cecile abandoned her daughters, Delphine started to see her as a biological mother with whom she has no emotional connection.

“She was like a colored movie star. Tall, mysterious, and on the run. Mata Hari in the airport. Except there weren’t any cameras or spies following the colored, broad-shouldered Mata Hari. Only three girls trailing her from a slight distance.”

This image—Cecile engaged in her own activities while her daughters trail behind her—perfectly captures how Delphine sees Cecile's relationship with her daughters. In the absence of concrete information about her mother, Delphine uses fantasy to fill in the gaps of her knowledge of Cecile, while she still feels abandoned by her mother.