Adult Dean: I learned a lot about my granddad that day and why Black men like him go to the barbershop, even when their hair hasn't changed in years.
Lillian: Where you been? We were so worried!
Bill: Look at the car. Look at the car, Dad. How many times do I have to tell you? I don't know what to tell... Dean, are you okay? Are you okay, Dean? Dad, I don't... [Grandaddy Clisby hands the car keys to Bill]
Adult Dean: Watching my granddad deal with his new situation made me realize that what he was being forced to accept was much harder than the limitations I had as a 12-year-old. I also appreciated how difficult this was for my dad and how difficult it may be for me one day when I have to do the same thing. Nah! I'm gonna love telling him what to do.

Adult Dean: One of the great things about my mom was how much she invested in us when we were little. She was like that for all of us. But she and Kim had things in common that she didn't have with me and my brother Bruce. A few years later, Bruce and I destroyed that tea set wrestling around in the family room. Kim adored mama. She wanted to be just like her. And mama loved the special bond they shared. Then the teen years hit.
Kim: You think I'm gonna wear this? Am I moving to a convent?
Lillian: No.
Adult Dean: It started out as fights about clothes. Then makeup, then curfew. Pretty soon it felt like they were fighting about everything. My dad understood this was a typical pattern for girls and their moms. Unfortunately, I didn't.
Dean: This is so crazy. They argue so much 'cause they're just alike.
[Lillian and Kim stop arguing and glare at Dean]
Bill: [sighs]
[fantasy: Bill escapes from kitchen on a jet pack]
Adult Dean: Like my dad, I eventually learned to stay out of it. That's just the way things were.

Big Jim: Mm, mm. Transmission fluid tastes burnt. Could be a crack in the fluid line.
Bill: Don't worry. It won't hurt him. But too much of this will definitely make you go blind. [both laugh]
Adult Dean: Years later, when I took a sip from Grandpa's flask, I got the joke. Then I threw up and passed out.

Adult Dean: Watching my father glare at Kwame, I thought girl dads were the meanest people in the world. Until I became one. Now I know that meanness is totally justified.

Bruce: Well, it seems like you could take all the energy you put into your system and just do the chores. [Kim shakes her head] Come on. Let's get started.
Kim: No. You're not the boss.
Bruce: You're right. Mom is. Want me to tell her about your system?
Adult Dean: Dang. Duped by a knock-off Tito Jackson.

Adult Dean: My parents had high standards for us. I appreciate it now, and so does my bank account, but at the time, man, it was annoying.
Lillian: Did you practice like I told you to?
Kim: Yes.
Lillian: Yes, what?
Kim: Yes, ma'am.
Lillian: [to Dean] Nu-uh-uh-uh.
Adult Dean: Like how she insisted on giving me an ashy elbows/lips and eye booger check every morning before I left the house.
Lillian: Where are your glasses?
Dean: I told you, I don't need them.
Adult Dean: Wearing glasses in junior high was basically telling your cousin to get a prom dress ready.

Lillian: What'd I tell you about bothering Bruce's things while he's away?
Adult Dean: "Away" was the word my mom used instead of "in Vietnam."
Lillian: Coach Long said I needed a bigger glove.
Bill: Man, I just bought you that glove. Is Coach Long gonna pay me for it?
Lillian: He's just looking out for Dean.
Bill: Right, right. Is that why he made you Team Mom? Looking out for Dean? Or because he's sweet on you?
Lillian: [chuckles] Stop it. He just did it 'cause we work together.
Dean: Why would Coach be sweet on Mama?
Bill & Lillian: Stay out of grown folks' business.
Adult Dean: "Stay out of grown folks' business" was usually code for something about money, sex, or the funny way Dad's studio smelled after a rehearsal.

Adult Dean: That's our old school. Shut down because of desegregation. But we still hung out there sometimes, mainly to girls about girls and then girls and... Wow, I really got distracted. You know the girl that you see for the first time and everything slows down? That was Lisa Jones. Everybody had a crush on her, but here comes my crush... Keisa Clemmons. She was perfect.
Keisa: Hi, Dean. Thanks for letting me borrow this. You were right. It was great.
Adult Dean: To this day, I can't smell Vaseline and Tide without being taken right back to that feeling.
Cory: Tell her you want to start going together, man. Don't be scared.
Dean: I'm not scared.
Adult Dean: I was so scared.
Dean: My plan is to stay best friends until she realizes she likes me.
Adult Dean: And I was an idiot.

Adult Dean: When I saw me, Brad, and Cory on that field, with kids from my neighborhood mingling with kids from a world way across town, united by something we all had in common, I was proud of what I'd done. It didn't even matter who won the game.
[As Dean sees Michael walking by the field with a bicycle, he nods his head. Michael nods his head back.]
Adult Dean: Now, I'd find out much later that Michael was only there to steal Brad's bike, but at the moment, it was validation.
[Dean sees a smartly-dressed Bill arrive at the field]
Adult Dean: It's a trip, the little things that you remember all your life. Your first hit, your first kiss, the first time your dad lets you know that he sees you. Well, I still hadn't had the other two, but, boy, did that third one feel good.

Adult Dean: After a weekend full of heartache over Keisa and marches and riots on the news, I actually looked forward to the mundane normalcy of school. [all the White kids are staring at Dean] Yep, it'd been like this ever since I stepped off the bus.
Mrs. Anderson: Okay, class, pay attention. Here are last Friday's quiz scores.
Adult Dean: A "C"? My GPA was being assassinated! And before you say anything, that's a great metaphor. And the quiz was on metaphors, so how'd I get a "C"?
[flashback to Dean sobbing at his desk and ripping up his home work set to "The Tracks of My Tears"]
Adult Dean: Oh, right. It was the night I saw my former friends, Cory and Keisa, kiss.