My last day at 20th street.

I’ve been going to the Bill Gothard Seminar all week, but I’m not going this morning because I promised Frostie and Ronnie I would take them shopping with $30 Mom gave me for them. We left the house about 9:00 and caught the bus downtown to the Big Store. That’s where Ronnie wanted to do his shopping. He got tennis shoes, two cute knit shirts, and some socks. Frosty couldn’t find anything downtown, so we (Jo Jo, Frostie, Ronnie, and I) caught the bus back to 20th Street. Ronnie has this funny little thing he pulls on me occasionally. He sits with his arm leaning on my shoulder, fooling with a strand of my hair. Then suddenly he pushes it all back, leans over, and blows warm breath into my ear! Today he peered right in it and said "Ooh, Jeanne! You got wax in your ear!" and then stuck his finger into my ear!

It was a beautiful, blue, sunny day. We were joined by Jackie, and Gerald, and we headed down Ridge Avenue (a ghetto commercial district) to the Big Store. Frostie got a nice pair of light blue pants, a pair of wranglers, and some socks. Then the kids wanted to head down to the Veterans Thrift Shop on Broad Street. I kind of gave up on getting back before the afternoon session at the civic center. The kids browsed in the thrift shop, looking at the old appliances and army jackets for Gerald and Jo Jo. Ronnie came over and started picking on Jackie and me.

Jackie kind of likes Ronnie. She looked at me and said, "He like you?"

I looked at her and said, "He’s my brother.”

"He your brother? No, now I don’t believe that!"

“He’s my brother in Christ because I asked Jesus into my heart, and he asked Jesus into his heart,

"So did I!"

"Well, then you’re my sister in Christ.”

Jackie looked happily confused. Then she looked at Ronnie, and asked, "You like her?"

I said somewhat wistfully, but jokingly, "No, he hates me, can’t you tell?"

He had been saying all week how glad he was that I was finally leaving.

So then Jackie looked at Ronnie and asked, "You hate Jeanne?"

Looking straight ahead, expressionless, Ronnie stated matter of factly, "I love Jeanne. She’s my sister."

"How she your sister!" Jackie still didn’t understand.

Ronnie said patiently, "She’s my sister in Christ.”

Then he added, “Dummy! You know we ain’t got the same mother!"

Before we parted that day at her house, Jackie said shyly, "You my sister in Christ too.”

As we left the Thrift Shop, Frostie said slyly, "Hey, Jeanne, you gonna treat us?"

I sighed. It was getting on in the day 12:00 and we hadn’t had anything to eat but all I had was a dollar.

"Well, I only have money enough to get you each a coke."

Prostie said, "Psych! We taking you out to eat!"

With that he pulled out a $10 bill from his pocket. He and Ronnie were wearing big smiles.

"Barb told us to.”

We went into a little Chinese American restaurant next to Wimpy’s on Broad and Girard. Frostie prayed, and we all had egg rolls, wonton soup, and shrimp fried rice. The guys all "busted on" the food.

Afterwards, as we walked up Girard, the guys stopped in at St. Joseph’s hospital to "visit Jo Jo’s grandmother." They insisted that I go on home with Jackie, instead of staying with them. Jackie wanted me to come up to her house for a little while to ask her mom if she could go to church with us on Sunday. When I finally got back to 20th Street, Ronnie and Frostie were both sitting on the sofa in the office, waiting. There were two vases of flowers with cards with my name on them, on the coffee table! All in all, it was a neat day. Barb did drop me off at the civic center in time for the afternoon session, even!