Simeon & Quinton (originally posted 11/21/19)

Two kids that I have fond memories of from the “Daniel days” are Simeon and Quinton. Simeon and Quinton were two boys about our age that for one reason or another were staying with Daniel’s family for some time. It wasn’t unusual for Daniel’s family to host people from their church for several days or more, but it’s a mystery how two black kids from the projects ended up at the house and why they were there for months. I seem to recall DCFS being involved, so that would explain their absence from their own family but not why they were cooped with with a white southern Penticostal family.

 Quinton was the older sibling. He was more laid back than his younger brother. He loved red Kool-Aid and he would ask for it at my house every time he came over. I’d whip up a big pitcher of it – a packet of flavor powder, a cup of sugar, and cold water. And then he cracked us up by pretending to become euphoric over drinking it. I mean, after half a pitcher, most anyone would start getting a sugar buzz. He just handled it with absurd humor.

 We never knew how to shout out to Quinton if he was far away. We felt like we pronounced his name “Quint’n” in our inside voices, but it’s awkward to shout. So we shouted, “Quin-TIN!” much to our own amusement.

 Simeon was more reserved. When we all hung out, we all acted like fools, but on his own he seemed deeper than your average kid.

 Back then, there was a song by PM Dawn called “Reality Used To Be A Friend Of Mine”, off their 1991 debut album. It was my jam. I played that song, and much of the album, all the time. Back then we had tapes, and not a lot of them. I may have had 6 tapes – maybe 3 proper albums and a few blank tapes that were continuously changing as I recorded new music off of the radio. This PM Dawn tape became a favorite of Quinton. He borrowed the tape from me, and after giving it back a few days later, I made him a copy to keep. He was a poor kid; for all I know that may have been his only tape.

 One time, the four of us were upstairs in my bedroom. We had the cordless phone and were making prank calls. I was never good at these kinds of calls because I couldn’t improvise or keep a straight face. Quinton proved to us that day that he was the prank call champion. He called various pet stores looking for zebras and restaurants claiming he was sick from their food. It’s possible – slightly – that our shenanigans culminated in a poorly-thought out call to a 1-900-number of the non-kosher variety. Weeks later when my mom received the phone bill…yeah, she was not happy about that. Sorry, mom.

 Before we knew it, Simeon and Quinton were gone. There is a sad, frustrating ending to our story. Daniel told me that Simeon had said or done something that angered his (Daniel’s) father. And Daniel’s father thought the best course of action was to hit Simeon with his belt. That’s right, a man of God, one of the most self-righteous, bullhorn-blaring, Bible-clutching individuals out there, took matters into his own hands and physically abused the kid. And then they were gone, and I never knew what happened to them. Looking back on that incident from the 2019 me as a father perspective, I’m absolutely disgusted with how those two kids were treated. I hope they are OK today.