RHETORICAL UPBRINGING

MY RHETORICAL UPBRINGING "Minder the grinder , the sweet spot finder, a lover Supreme , God's gift to a woman's dream." This black street poetry and others like it was a part of our socialization as black boys in St. Louis County, Missouri, in the 1950's and 1960s. Its juxtaposition of rhythm, rhyme and prurience directed, corrected, if necessary, masculine orientation. It was just a part, but an important part, since it gave us a measurable rhetorical standard with which to launch, parry, fend off verbal barbs in our inevitable jousting contests. Practicing made for perfect i.e. , "I hate to talk about your mama, she's a sweet old soul, she got a.." Their residual sequelae marinate my everyday analyses of others' conformity to standards of rigor to which they may have been exposed as kids, or learned as adults. What I do know is that rhyme, rhythm, sex, still rock, mock, sock, like no other!