Summary

One of more than a dozen short stories gathered in Toni Cade Bambara's Gorilla, My Love, "Blues Ain't No Mockingbird" is the tale of an impoverished black family as told through the eyes of the young granddaughter. The story opens as two children, Cathy and the title's unnamed narrator, are jumping atop a frozen puddle, waiting for their turn in the tire swing occupied by Tyrone and Terry, the neighbor's twin boys.

Cora Cain, the young narrator's grandmother, is on the porch making Christmas cakes when two white men, one holding a camera, come their way. They work for the county and are purportedly taking footage as part of the food stamp campaign. They approach Granny Cain in the hopes that she will give them a statement regarding the campaign. She says nothing and eventually they leave. When they are gone...