MOJO and The Jones-ezz (see below)

So to put a bookend on this little triptych of the 7-11.

During that long night a man walked across the parking lot, no shoes, a bandage wrapped around his head. His clothes, oddly, were not dirty or worn. Actually they looked expensive and his eyes were clear with the kind of whites that I admire. He had big eyes and was small and wiry. Being at the time almost obsessed with Miles Davis, I thought for a moment the he was Miles himself, on some mysterious sojourn (you know research, incognito, on the D.L.). He walked up to the glass front looked inside but did not come in to the 7-11. He stood there for a long minute surveying the scene through the glass. But not really meeting my eyes.

I walked out and said "yo nice evening" or something like that. He looked up at me kind of startled, and said in a real cool kind of whispery voice "You work in there? This neighborhood is fucked man you gonna get your ass shot."

I said that I was pretty much thinking the same thing. He said he was hungry. Without a second thought I told him that he could go into the store and pick out whatever he wanted. I followed him in kind of worried that he would go nuts, you know take huge arms full of stuff, but I had committed and was going to see it through.

In a very discerning manner and with no shoes he kind of delicately and slowly walked through the store. He picked out a cheeseburger, the kind you nuke, a chocolate milk, a bag of chips and an ice cream bar. He then went outside sat with his back against the glass and started to eat his picnic.

I went out and sat next to him, looking out at the parking lot.

We stayed quiet for a long time. Then he told me I was pretty cool.

And you know I was kind of. It has worn off since. He then said real raspy like "you know you got some Mojo my man." I could not have felt more proud.

But I honestly I didn't know exactly what mojo meant. I knew it was good. So I asked.

He said " You got your average Joe, right? But then you got a Joe who got MO."

I tried not to look like a grinning idiot. Man I'm a Joe with MO I thought.

He was eating his ice cream bar and adjusting the bandage on his head, I couldn't see any wound and the bandage was clean actually very clean. And he said looking at the Dove Bar " I got a Jones for these bars."

So it being "Teach the Cracker English day" I asked him what having a 'Jones' meant. I had heard the idiom of course but I had by then to realized the the etymology of seemingly tossed off phrases can be very interesting, illuminating even.

He looked at me askance and kind of smiled for the first time and said " You know when you keepin up with the Jones'- gotta get that thing or those clothes or that car- you know to look good and shit. Well that means you gotta Jones for that shit you after. It's obsession really."

So this Mojo boy ain't never keepin up with the Jones'. At least I have tried all these years to keep obsession at bay. My man showed showed me some shit that night.

Got to have a Jones for this
a Jones for that
but keepin up with the Jones' boy
just ain't where it's at.

Boz Scaggs