Summary

Chapter 7 titled, “Did We Kill Matt?” includes the Nannyism - “Ya’ll are all ya’ll got” (99). The chapter begins as Johnson explains how every kid waits for the last day of school. They explain how their life was simple those days - usually their mother would pack a bag for the week and they would live at Nanny’s house. Sometimes they went to a local amusement park and took a family vacation - but the “highlights of every Black summer were the family cookouts” (101). One year they had a cookout on the fourth of July at Liberty State Park, across from Ellis Island where the Statue of Liberty stands.

The four kids were excited to be out that day. It was a typical hot afternoon in July, and later on Rasul and Lil’ Rall asked for permission from Nanny to skip...