A record of events shorter than an autobiography that is written by a person having intimate knowledge and based on personal observations limited to a specific time is what creates a memoir. The short essay “Fried Buzzard Nights” in The Mee Street Chronicles written by Frankie Lennon is considered one of the many memoirs within the book. “Fried Buzzard Nights” is a descriptive essay that takes us back through her memories where her laughter still lives.
The event described in the essay by the main character, Frankie Lennon has taken us from Los Angeles, California to Evansville, Indiana. From the hot Santa Ana winds swooping LA back to the days of the overworked air-conditioner at Allen’s Bar reminds me of what were called the fried buzzard nights. Allen’s was a small bar where Frankie hung out. When Frankie is in the bar she observed an alcoholic that went by the name cheese. Cheese would rapidly consume his 20-20 and slowly the 20-20 consumed him as well. Cheeses and Clyde Dixon were some of the regular customers at Allen’s bar. Clyde would wait to get his usual drink, which consisted of a Johnnie Walker Red and water. Allen’s was located on the corner of Denby and Sycamore streets in an oppressed neighborhood. In the surroundings of the bar was a children’s adventure land, which was taken over by an evil shadow that made it disintegrate within itself. Going from the surroundings to the interior of the bar we can say it is so small it resembles a rat hole. Even though the bar was small, Frankie enjoyed going there because it was a part of her search for identity.
As she searched for her identity going back to the bar became the core to find her balance and to make her whole. Frankie was in search for her other half; for the people that she knew where going to be there. Those were the people that were not admitted into the norms developed by society. Frankie, describes these people with whom she could have a good time. For Frankie and those people they found their identity in drinking alcohol. Alcohol can be an escape from reality, but it can also turn into a rat trap that catches you for good.
The rat trap disguised as alcohol does not only consume the user but their identity. Family plays a huge role as each member forms their identity. What stood out the most to us was the part where the author is describing how alcohol found her and if it could it would trap her. That stood out to us the most because both of our fathers are alcoholics. Alcohol not only affects the consumer but his/hers family as well.
Those hot August days would bring back those memories. These are the memories that have shaped her identity. Just imagine a picture frame were the outside is the LA’s surroundings and the inside is the picture of Allen’s Bar. A memory like a picture stuck in her head that would come back those summer nights. We wonder if the possibilities occur to her that as she was testing the other side of her blackness she may have not been able to leave Allen’s Bar as a result of having become an alcoholic.
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