Jimmy Makes A Friend 

 Most neighborhoods in Detroit were divided. My dad told me that usually, black families lived in the city and white families lived in the suburbs. Our neighborhood was called the "inner-city," and it was one of the few places where everyone lived together. Even though we lived in the same area, kids usually stayed with their own groups. But there was one thing we all had in common: we were poor. 

On the baseball field, that was the only thing that mattered; if you could hit the ball, you were part of the game. When the game ended, everyone went back to their own homes. That was just the way it was, until I met Pedro. 

My grandparents lived in a place called Mexican Village. My grandpa was a real character who loved to play the bagpipes and accordion. The neighbors there were very polite and loved to listen to his music. I liked visiting him because there was always a baseball game happening nearby. I was usually too shy to join in, but then I met Pedro. He was a strong kid who could hit a baseball a mile! One day, he sat down next to me and asked, “Hey Güero, why aren't you playing?” I learned later that Güero was a nickname for a white kid. Pedro was fast and strong, and we became a great team. 

After a game one day, he asked if I was hungry and said we were going to get some comida (food). We went to a restaurant also called Mexican Village. I was used to burger places with white tiles and red stools, but this place was full of bright colors. There were green and red tiles on the walls and pictures of bullfighters. The air smelled like roasted peppers and sweet treats. Loud music with trumpets and accordions played in the background. 

A waitress named Rosa came over. Pedro told her my name was "Jaime" and said I was a good runner. I whispered to Pedro that I only had fifty cents, but he told me not to worry. Rosa brought us cold water and a bowl of green peppers. Pedro told me to be careful—cuidado—with the peppers. 

I thought I was tough because my mom put mild peppers in our salads at home. I took a huge bite of one. Suddenly, my mouth felt like it was on fire! I drank my water, licked the condensation off the glass, and even put napkins in my mouth to stop the stinging. Pedro just laughed and laughed at me. 

A few minutes later, Rosa brought us a stack of warm, soft flatbread called tortillas. They were served under a cloth to keep them steaming hot. Pedro showed me how to spread butter on them until it melted. It was the best thing I had ever tasted! 

We left the restaurant feeling very full. We went to my grandpa’s house, and I was surprised to hear my grandpa greet Pedro in Spanish. They liked each other right away. 

The next week, Pedro rode his purple bike all the way to my neighborhood to find me. I greeted him with “¿Qué pasó?”—which means "What's up?" After that, we played baseball almost every Saturday. I learned all about his neighborhood, and he learned about mine. 

That is how we became great Amigos.

Jimmy Goes Shopping 

 Saturday mornings were for cartoons. I loved Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear, but Speed Racer was the best. Speed’s car, the Mach 5, was like a spaceship. It had buttons for everything: Button A made the car jump over wrecks, Button C had saws to cut through trees, and my favorite, Button F, turned the car into a submarine. I

 loved the water. My sister Lizzy said it was because I am a "Capricorn," showing me a picture of a goat in her magazine. I didn’t think a goat would be very good at swimming, but I sure was. In the hot Detroit summer, there were two ways to get wet. Sometimes, someone would open a fire hydrant, and water would spray thirty feet into the air for every kid on the block to run through. The other way was the Swim Mobile. It was a giant truck that was actually a swimming pool on wheels parked at the park by the river. 

Since I lived downtown, I could walk there. The water came up to my neck, and the bottom of the pool felt like bumpy metal. The only bad part was the "twenty-minute whistle" because you had to get out so the next group could swim. I often dreamed about swimming underwater forever without coming up for air. In one dream, I saw a bright light that answered all my questions about life and death, and I felt very peaceful. Even though I forgot the words when I woke up, the happy feeling stayed with me. 

After cartoons, it was time to go shopping with Mom. Most boys hated shopping, but I knew I could usually talk Mom into a treat. Mom was a master at saving money, treating every penny as if it were very important. 

Our first stop was the "Day Old" bread store in our gold Ford Galaxie. When Dad first said he bought a "Galaxie," I thought it was a rocket ship, but it was just a big, beige car. 

The bread store was great because it was the only place Mom bought name-brand snacks. "Mom, look! Hostess cupcakes!" Lizzy said. "Those are forty cents," Mom said, looking worried about the price. "But they are 'Day Old'!" I said. "That means they are half off. You are actually saving money!" Mom smiled and told us to put them in the cart. The best part was the "Wheel of Wonder" at the checkout. Mom let us buy things separately so we could get two spins. I spun the wheel—clack-clack-clack—and won a fruit pie, while Lizzy won a pack of Ho-Hos. It felt like winning the lottery. 

Next, we went to Eastern Market, a loud, crowded place where farmers sold crops from big trucks. Mom gave Lizzy and me fifty cents each. Lizzy spent hers right away on the first thing she saw because she wanted to get back to the car to read her magazines about movie stars and ghosts. 

I liked to shop around, walking the rows and doing the math in my head. I compared prices and the size of the fruit at every truck. Finally, I found a man selling big, purple plums at the best price and felt very smart for getting a good deal. 

When we got home, we helped Mom put the groceries away. I asked for one more treat, but I knew she would probably say no. That was okay, though. I could hear Tommy and Pedro playing baseball in the lot next door, so I grabbed my glove and ran outside to join them.