Got accosted by a black teen today at IHOP on Perkins road getting out of my car. "Hey man...can I get three dollars from you? I ran my car out of gas...."
When I was a new-hire I brought my family up for a look around - drove down to Mud Island to see the Memphis Belle before they moved it.
No parking around the overhead tram, so we parked at the tourist information center next door. I went to the rear left door and started unbuckling my 3 year-old from his car seat. Suddenly a man appeared about two feet behind me. Now, it was August and about 100 degrees in the shade, and this dude had on a zipped up parka and ski hat. He held out a fistful of brochures from the Lorraine Motel museum and said, "Hey man, you want to give to the civil rights museum?"
I'm suddenly in full-bore alpha male mode, "bowed up" as we say in Alabam'. My kid's behind me saying, "What's that man want, Daddy?" I said I wasn't interested, and he moved on. He never took his other hand out of his pocket (one remembers these things). Welcome to Memphis.