One day I was
walking across the campus
at Los Angeles State College
and a fellow was lying there
in the shade of a tree.
And I looked down
and I recognized him.
He was one of the guys
from my gym class that was always
giving me a hard time to go.
Every chance he got,
he was doin' something. Wanted to
fight,
-Ooh!
wanted to tear into me.
So I walked up to him,
I looked down,
I called his name.
I said, do you know who I am?
He looked up and said yeah,
Jeffrey, I know you.
I said, are you a student here
at City?
He said yeah.
I said, well,
I'm a student here, too.
What're you gonna do about it?
I was ready to fight,
I was goin' to annihilate him,
cause we were in
California now,
we were not in Little Rock,
we were not in Arkansas,
we were not at Central.
You now, I didn't mind getting kicked out of college
for fighting,
but I couldn't take
that chance at Central.
-Right.
So I was ready to fight him,
You know, get up.
You said I don't deserve to be
at the same school you are?
Well, ok, let's get it on.
He just laid there, said,
"Oh, it's all right
if we go to the same school
together here."
I said why?
He said,  "well,
this is California
and the races do that,
but if we were
back in Arkansas,
I still wouldn't want you
to be in the same school."
I Said, Well,
pretend we're in Arkansas.
[Laughter]
He said, "But we're not,
I don't have no beef
with you out here."
He wouldn't even stand up.
-Ha!
He justlaid there
On the ground, talkin' to me,
wouldn't even stand up.
And you know,
that old fashioned upbringing
in me, you know,
I couldn't kick a guy
while he was down,
or stomp his face or anything
like I wanted to do.
I just had to walk away
and leave.
But I found out that
there was a lot of anger and bitterness in me
that I didn't know was there.
-Sure.
It all came out
when I saw his face.
-Um Hm.
And if he had gotten up,
I prob'ly be doin'
a life sentence for murder.
-Um Hm.
Cause I was gonna tear into
him with everything I had.
And he just laid there,
cool and calm, not worried about a thing.
And I'm walkin' around with all this bitterness
inside of me.
-Um Hm.
So I Start chinllin',
sayin', you know,
I was the one upset, he wasn't upset.
All the stuff he did to me, he didn't care
a thing about it.
So I said, you know,
let bygones be.
