Thursday, May 8, 2008

JIMMY SNAPPS JR.

Jimmy Snapps, Jr. was the only darkie in the Sin Embargo.

 

Mister Zevin, can we stay away from racial slurs, please?

 

Do you want me to tell it like it was or sugar-coat it for kids?  Are you writing a children’s book on these guys?  Or is this for adults?  Because there’s a lot of this shit that’s not going to wash.  I can tell you that right now!

 

I’m sorry, Mister Zevin.  Please go on.

 

You asked me about Snapps.

 

Yes.

 

And I’ll tell you.  Back in the heyday, Snapps didn’t give a flying fuck about being called “darkie.” We got him into the white clubs, the white bathrooms, the white everything.  He was treated as an equal because he was in our eyes, regardless of what the fuck you called him.

 

Yes, I see.  Please continue.

 

Out of the whole pack of guys we swung with, Jimmy was the most real.  He has a lot of humility on him, being the only darkie and all.  And when he sang, it was like the whole world stopped turning.  You ever heard of that chink joint in Hoboken?  Bon Quo’s?

 

Um, yes.  I think I know the place.

 

Well, we took Jimmy there one night for his birthday.  He didn’t know what we were going to do.  We dress up like a bunch of Chinese laundrymen and serve him whatever he wanted all night.  Then we had to split because we had a shindig at the Cloud Palace.  But, I tell you, Bon Quo’s was the show that night.

 

Can you tell me a little about your relationship with the rest of the guys in Sin Embargo?

 

Naw.  They’re all dead to me.  All of them but Snapps.





-SLL

 

 

 

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