Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

“When you lived in the south suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites. Whites were like those baby pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about.” 

Laurel notes earlier that she has never seen a baby pigeon even though she knows that they exist. Living in a predominantly black suburb, Laurel and her friends rarely see a white person. Therefore, when the white troop shows up at Girl Scout Camp, they are different and exotic. The girls in the black Brownie troop are on the offensive, prepared for these girls to do or say something aggressive or offensive. Just like Laurel’s father with the Mennonite, they are ready to take their chance to pass along the hurt they’ve been feeling to those who benefit from that oppression.

“If most girls in the troop could be any type of metal, they’d be bunched-up wads of tinfoil, maybe, or rusty iron nails you had to get tetanus shots for.” 

Laurel is responding to the popular Girl Scout song that urges Scouts to open themselves up to making new friends without abandoning old friends, comparing new and old friends to silver and gold. Laurel and her friends, however, are used to being treated as second-class citizens. They see themselves as rough and perhaps even dangerous. 

“We had been taught that adulthood was full of sorrow and pain, taxes and bills, dreaded work and dealing with whites, sickness and death.” 

Throughout her life, Laurel has learned that becoming an adult is not about realizing dreams, but about drudgery and facing monotony, pain, and oppression. The girls at the camp live in the southern suburbs of Atlanta, a predominantly black area that is likely full of working-class people, unlike the white areas that some of the black characters in other stories live in.