A Dandy Named Sam, Good stories and Pretty Feet

I met an interesting man today. He was a sharply-dressed, energetic, 80-something year-old black gentleman named Sam and we had the best 45-minute conversation. Sam was born in the mid-1940s and lived in Memphis, TN until his teens. I commented that he did not have the slightest accent, which is rare for a native Memphian. He explained that when he was a young teenager, he moved to Chicago (as many black southerners did back then) where he attended mostly-white public schools until he graduated. He was clearly glad to have gotten away from the ignorant black southerners as well as the ignorant south-side Chigoans and in doing so, he seemed like quite the uppity negro. Still, I liked his confidence and the pride he had in what he had become.

Oh, and what had he become?! After high school, he attended the University of Illinois where he got a degree in nursing and would practice for years. He would later go on to graduate from a medical school in Belize but he only practiced medicine for the four years that he lived in Mexico. He spoke excellent Spanish, as you might imagine. When he returned to the US, he decided that passing the equivalency test to become a doctor was not worth it, so he stayed in nursing. He had a wife, who died about 15 years ago and he has been single since. He didn’t mention her often, but when he did, it was obvious that he was madly in love with her. She was a pretty blonde German girl that he’d met while she was on vacation in the United States. There was no mention of kids and  it seems like he did not have any. A shame since they would’ve undoubtedly been very good-looking.

At some point, I commented on his dapper appearance and he thanked me for noticing. He wore khaki chino pants, a medium green Oxford shirt and dark brown leather sandals. Topping it off was a short, wide brim straw hat that had a red band around the crown. He looked so sharp that I had to pull up a documentary about Congo dandies that I'd shown to my pretty girl a few years ago. He was enraptured by their style and dedication to their craft and said that he was going to watch the rest when he got home.

We then went on to discuss where we'd lived during our lives and he mentioned that in the 1960s, he'd been stationed on an Air Force base in Germany. I told him that in the 1980s I'd lived on an Air Force base in Germany not 90 minutes from where he was stationed and when he heard that he began talking to me in full German sentences! Imagine my surprise! And boy, was he fluent! We spent the rest of the 45 minutes reminiscing about our time in Germany and he told me that he got his love for the German language and for Germany when he was in high school. Turns out that his German teacher was a very pretty woman in her 40s who used to wear skirts and would often walk around the class barefoot. When he said that, his eyes lit up, he looked to the sky and he sighed (mostly to himself), "boy, did she have the prettiest feet!" Right after this, he looked up to me somewhat stunned that the words had escaped his mouth and all I could do was laugh. It wasn't just any laugh and he knew that right away; mine was a laugh of recognition and empathy. He smiled and asked, "oh, you know just what I mean don't you?!" to which I replied, "oh yes I do Mr. Sam. My girl has the prettiest feet that God ever did create." He replied, "yes, I bet she does. Let me ask you this; is she a pretty blonde?" I said, "she sure is!” And with that, we laughed again for what was probably a full minute. We laughed as if we were long lost uncle and nephew who had just found each other after not knowing that the other had ever existed.

When we had recovered, we wrapped up our conversation and I gave him my contact information. I told him that we must meet again and he agreed that this must happen again soon. I walked him to the door and as he walked out, he turned, pointed at me and smiled big. We had just made each other’s day.

#prettyfeet #prettyblonde #germany #sam #story #2025