WORD LISTS

"One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia, List 1

Thu Feb 21 18:32:22 EST 2013
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
In the summer of 1968, three sisters travel to California to visit their estranged mother. While there, they learn about the fight for equality and civil rights.

This list covers "Cassius Clay Clouds"–"Secret Agent Mother."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6, List 7, List 8, List 9, List 10

Here are links to our lists for other other books by Rita Williams-Garcia: P.S. Be Eleven, Gone Crazy in Alabama, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground
brace
Still, I anchored myself and my sisters best as I could to brace us for whatever came next.
jab
Those clouds weren’t through with us yet and dealt another Cassius Clay-left-and-a-right jab to the body of our Boeing 727.
whimper
I kept my whimper to myself.
spectacle
The last thing Pa and Big Ma wanted to hear was how we made a grand Negro spectacle of ourselves thirty thousand feet up in the air around all these white people.
signature
We saw ourselves riding wild waves on surf­ boards, picking oranges and apples off fruit trees, filling our autograph books with signatures from movie stars we’d see in soda shops.
terminal
Once inside the terminal, she let it all hang out.
judgment
Only judgment, and believe me, Big Ma had plenty of judgment for Cecile.
riot
All them riots.
announce
A shrill voice had announced the departing flight to Oakland.
depart
A shrill voice had announced the departing flight to Oakland.
revival
Although I could at least keep still, Vonetta and Fern stamped their feet like holy rollers at a revival meeting.
stranger
She’d expected this stranger to say, as if she were a neighbor, “They’re as good as my own."
embarrassment
I’ll make sure they don’t misbehave or be an embarrassment to the Negro race.
glance
I glanced at my Timex.
responsible
Among the three of us, I was the only one responsible enough to keep and wear a wrist-watch.
homely
Not plain as in homely plain, but even plain.
steady
It kept bouncing and surging forward until the bouncing smoothed out and we were rolling against the ground, nice and steady.
descent
The intercom crackled, and the pilot made an announcement about the descent and altitude and that we would be landing in ten minutes.
immigrant
The Chinese immigrants building the railroads connecting east to west.
pout
The truth was, one pout from either Vonetta or Fern and I would have given up the window seat.
scold
We would have been the grand Negro spectacle that Big Ma had scolded us against becoming when we were back in Brooklyn.
spectacular
How many times would I be this high up and have a sight as spectacular as the Golden Gate Bridge right underneath me?
disgrace
Even though there were only eight Negroes on board, counting my sisters and me, I had managed to disgrace the entire Negro race, judging by the head shaking and tsk-tsking going on around us.
surge
It kept bouncing and surging forward until the bouncing smoothed out and we were rolling against the ground, nice and steady.
assign
Vonetta, Fern, and I stood next to the young redheaded stewardess assigned to watch us until Cecile came forward.
litter
They call it littering when you carelessly drop things.
anxious
Not because she was anxious to meet Cecile.
routine
Vonetta asked again so she could have her routine rehearsed in her head—her curtsy, smile, and greeting—leaving Fern and me to stand around like dumb dodos.
appalled
The redheaded stewardess was appalled by my uppity behavior.
gawk
She thought it was all right to have the large white woman gawk at us, talk to us, and buy our attention.
recite
I could see any thoughts Vonetta had about reciting poetry, tap-dancing, and curtsying vanished.
poetry
I could see any thoughts Vonetta had about reciting poetry, tap-dancing, and curtsying vanished.
barrier
Once we were there, face-to-face, the stewardess stopped in her tracks and made herself a barrier between the strange woman and us.
agent
Cecile looked more like a secret agent than a mother.
flee
She dropped the slip of paper on the floor, handed us over, and fled away on her wobbly high heels.

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