I'm a "g"!

Hey – I’m a “g”!

One of my teenage nieces wrote this on her Facebook wall post: "supppppp shawty, I be wlking to daaaa bus stop.. word."

That niece of mine is a white girl, living in a nice suburb outside of a large West Coast city. Her father is an executive for a large corporation which all of you know by name. I started calling her “El-G” – her initials. It seems to work.

I responded to her post with, “what???” knowing full well what she meant, but I was given a translation by her older sister anyway, “she’s walking to the bus stop”.

So, I decided to have some fun with it. I posted this on El-G’s original wall post “zzzup El G? I be sittn on the couch in my crib, word!” – I got no reply – zilch, nada. But that didn't deter me, maybe she’s just busy.

I read another post from another niece of mine (I am very grateful that my teenage nieces have all "friended" me, by the way) which stated – in English – that they were putting up the Christmas lights. I wrote back, “I be puttn up the glitter in my crib – yo!”

That did it! She loved it. She wrote, "haha i love you auntie I your a g! haha I gotta see that glitter girl". I told her that El-G inspired me. I now call my other niece "K-Dawg".

I’m a “g”! For a minute I wasn’t sure what she meant. I am still new to this language. Then I realized she meant “gangster”. OK, this niece is also a white girl living in the suburbs of a large Mid-Western city. Her father retired from the fire department as a captain. Her mother is a CPA.

Am I showing my age when I say – What’s with these kids these days, with their gangster talk and wearing their pants past their ass?! Or should I say, “wazzup wid deez kids, wid their fly talk and shit!?”

I don’t know if it really matters, as long as they don’t start carrying guns, doing drugs and acting like real gangsters. After all, I used to wear hip huggers that were so low the zipper was about an inch long, with tube tops that left nothing to the imagination; I listened to acid rock; and we had our own version of gangster-talk, I suppose. But it seems so lame now. “Down with the man! Groovy!”