Bugs whispered, "Shoot, this ain't no city, this is just another cardboard jungle." "A what?"
"A cardboard jungle, somewhere you can get off the train and clean up and get something to eat without the cops chasing you out of town."
I said, "Well, what're we going to do? We can't just go busting into this city and expect someone to feed us, can we?"
Bugs said, "One of us has got to talk to them, let's flip for it." "OK."
Bugs rumbled around in his pocket and found a penny. He rubbed it up against his britches and said, "Heads I win, tails you lose."
"OK."
He flipped the penny up into the air and caught it, then slapped it down on the back of his left hand.
He peeked underneath his right hand to see and a big smile cracked his face. Shucks!
Bugs said. "Tails. You lose." "Dang! So what should 1 say?"
"Ask them if this is Hooperville, see if they got any extra food."
I moved out from behind our tree and walked over toward the biggest fire, I waited until some folks noticed me, then said, "Excuse me, is this here Hooperville?"
The man who was playing the mouth organ stopped and everyone else around the fire looked up at me.
One of the white men said, "What is it you looking for?" I said, "A city called Hooperville, sir."
They all laughed.
The mouth organ man said, "Naw, son, what you're looking for is Hooverville, with a v, like in President Herbert Hoover."
I said, "Oh, is this it, sir?"
The man said, "This is one of them." I said, "One of them?"
He answered, "They're all over the country, this here is the Flint version." "And all of them are called Hooverville?"
"That's right, Mr. Hoover worked so hard at making sure every city has got one that it seems like it would be criminal to call them anything else."
Someone said. "That's the truth!"
I said. "Well. How're we going to know if we're in the right one?' The mouth organ man said, "Are you hungry?"
"Yes. sir."
"Are you tired?" "Yes, sir.
"Are you scared about what's going to happen tomorrow?"
I didn't want anyone to think I was a baby so I said, "Not exactly scared, sir, maybe I am a little bit nervous." The man smiled and said, "Well, son, anyplace where there're other folks in need of the same things that you are is the right place to be. This is exactly the Hooverville you're looking for."
I knew what the man was trying to say. This was the exact same kind of circle- talking and cross-talking that Momma used to do. Bugs hadn't had that kind of practice, he came from behind the tree and said, "I don't get it, you said there were Hoovervilles all over the place, what if we was looking for the Hooverville in Detroit or Chicago, how could this be the right one to be in?"
The man said, "You boys from Flint?" I said, "Yes, sir."
The man waved his mouth organ like a magic wand and pointed it all over the little cardboard city.
"Boys" he said, "look around you."
The city was bigger than I thought it was. The raggedy little huts were in every direction you looked. And there were more people sitting around than I first thought too, mostly it was men and big boys, but there were a couple of women every now and then and a kid or two. They were all the colors you could think of, black, white and brown, but the fire made everyone look like they were different shades of orange. There were dark orange folks sitting next to medium orange folks sitting next to light orange folks.
"All these people" the mouth organ man said, "are just like you, they're tired, hungry and a little bit nervous about tomorrow. This here is the right place for y'all to be 'cause we're all in the same boat. And you boys are nearer to home than you'll ever get."
Someone said, "Amen, brother"
The mouth organ man said, "It don't matter if you're looking for Chicago or Detroit or Ortando or Oklahoma City, I rode the rails to all of them. You might think or you might hear that things are better just down the line, but they're singing the same sad song all over this country. Believe me, son, being on the road is no good. If you two boys are from Flint, this is the right Hooverville for you."
Someone said, "Brother, why don't we feed these boys? That one looks like he ain't eaten in two or three months."
Shucks, he didn't have to point or nothing, everyone knew who he meant.
But I didn't care, the food that was bubbling up in those three big pots even sounded delicious.
The mouth organ man said, "You're welcome to join us, but we all pitch in here, so's unless either one of you is carrying one of them smoked West Virginny hams in them bags, it looks like you'll be pulling KP tonight."
I said, "Pulling what, sir?"
He said, "KP Kitchen Police, you do the cleanup after everyone's had their fill. There're a couple of other young folks who'll show you what you have to do"
Me and Bugs both said, "Yes, sir!" This seemed like a real good trade.
A woman handed me and Bugs each a flat, square, empty tin can. "That, m'lords, is your china. Please be careful not to chip it."
My china had the words JUMBO A&P SARDINES stamped into the bottom of it.
She handed us two beat-up old spoons and said, "Don't be shy, you two just about missed supper, you'd best hurry up."
She took us over to one of the big pots and filled up our tin plates.
"You're lucky" she said, "it's muskrat stew and there's plenty left over tonight, eat as much as you can."
The stew was made out of dandelion greens and a couple of potatoes and some small wild carrots and some crawdads and a couple of little chunks of meat. It tasted great! We both even got seconds!
When we were done, the woman told us, "You boys leave your bags here, it's time to do the dishes now." Uh-oh. "Ma'am, I like to keep my suitcase with me wherever I go."
"I promise you your suitcase will be safe here."