to-and lindyhopping my head off. I'd always been fast at picking up new things. I made up for lost time now so fast that soon girls wereasking me to dance with them. I worked my partners hard; that's why they liked me so much. When I was at work, up in the Roseland men's room,
MBT Kafala, I just couldn't keep still. My shine rag poppedwith the rhythm of those great bands rocking the ballroom. White customers on the shine stand,especially, would laugh to see my feet suddenly break loose on their own and cut a few steps. Whitesare correct in thinking that black people are natural dancers. Even little kids are-except for thoseNegroes today who are so "integrated," as I had been, that their instincts are inhibited. You knowthose "dancing jibagoo" toys that you wind up? Well,
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cheap puma shoes, I was like a live one-music just wound me up. By the next dance for the Boston black folk-I remember that Lionel Hampton was coming in to play-Ihad given my notice to the Roseland's manager. When I told Ella why I had quit,
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501, she laughed aloud: I told her I couldn't find time to shine shoes anddance, too. She was glad, because she had never liked the idea of my working at that no-prestige job. When I told Shorty, he said he'd known I'd soon outgrow it anyway. Shorty could dance all right himself but,
847, for his own reasons, he never cared about going to the bigdances. He loved just the music-making end of it. He practiced his saxophone and listened to records. It astonished me that Shorty didn't care to go and hear the big bands play. He had his alto sax idol,Johnny Hodges, with Duke Ellington's band,
coach purses sale, but he said he thought too many young musicians wereonly carbon-copying the big-band names on the same instrument. Anyway, Shorty was really seriousabout nothing except his music, and about working for the day when he could start his own littlegroup to gig around Boston. The morning after I quit Roseland, I was down at the men's clothing store bright and early. Thesalesman checked and found that I'd missed only one we