The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 a collection of terms and images related to Christopher Paul Curtiss 1995 novel

the brown bomber (p. 6) That was what we called our car. It was a 1948 Plymouth that was dull brown and real big, Byron said it was turd brown. From Mikes 1940s Automobile

conk (p. 87) Byron had gotten a conk! A process! A do! A butter! A ton of trouble! His hair was reddish brown, straight, stiff and slick-looking. Parts of it stuck up like porcupine stickers because Momma hadnt been too gentle when she snatched the handkerchief off.

conk a lye-straightened hairdo popularized in the 1920s by Cab Calloway definition: The Racial Slur image: the KINGS of swing1/music/kings.htm Cab Calloway

Yakkety Yak Kennys favorite song Written by The Coasters Trivia! The group began in Los Angeles as The Robins. Later part of the group split off and formed a new group in New York. They called themselves The Coasters because of their coast-to-coast roots. Info: Rock and Roll Hall of Image:

Yakkety Yak Imagine Kenny and his family listening to this song while sitting in the Brown Bomber!

Yakkety Yak (p. 117) Each of us kids got to play four songs each (I played Yakety Yak all four times)…

The Brown Bombers TT AB-700, Ultraglide probably looked like this. Image:

Buster Brown shoes (p. 142) I took her shoes off for her, and inside one of her shoes was a kind of worn-down picture of a little white boy with a girls hairdo and a smiling dog. In a circle around both of them it said, Buster Brown. Image:

Buster Brown shoes (p. 117) image: As I drifted back to sleep I wondered what a little white boy would think if he knew he was getting stepped on every day by my sister.