the most infamous closet in literature

I said come here, nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you.

This was presented to me as humorous at a very young age, before I was familiar with the novel. Not because of the use of the word nigger either. My cousins, who were a couple years older than me, used to refer to certain activities as "bustin' up a chiffarobe." I didn't understand it but I did pick up on the fact that the phrase was funny and like any younger family member does, brought home with me to try out on my group of friends. I don't think it went over too well. Shortly thereafter due to required elementary school reading, I experienced the phrase in print. It sparked a quick "oh that's where they got that from" moment but nothing else as literature, especially forced, didn't rank to high for me at the time. Several years later however during time where books and I had a meth and trucker type relationship, I cracked the novel on my own accord. It has been my contention since that moment that Harper Lee, regardless of the story's geographical and historic setting, found that phrase hilarious. Professors and writers would come to tell me otherwise but I know that Mrs. Lee in all her professionalism, let out even the slightest giggle upon laying those words to paper. After all she had to have a sense of humor to be friends with Truman Capote.

So here I am, a decade and a half later, far removed from the world of Atticus and Scout and for that matter large wooden closets. Out of nowhere comes some up and coming, Tuesday afternoon, Comedy Central comic who just throws it out there, "bustin' up a chiffarobe". I forget the context but I'm blown away. A week later I'm watching 30 rock and Alec Baldwin while impersonating an older black gentleman asks if he should "come over and bust up that chiffarobe." Now the probability of two chiffarobe jokes running on two different shows on two different networks is low. The possibility of me catching both of them is drastically lower. So as any logically thinking human would do, I took this as a sign from our creator. And I believe that enormous, invisible jackalope in the sky is telling me to buy a chiffarobe. So where does one find an over-sized, obsolete piece of furniture that hasn't been manufactured in over 50 years? I don't know but I believe my faith will lead me to it. And once I get it, I will properly store my clothes in it. The chiffarobe and I will have a healthy symbiotic relationship for years to come. However, we will both sadly know that eventually the day will come when I will be forced to drag her out in the backyard and, as life often imitates art, bust up that fucking chiffarobe.