ABSTRACT
The joy of sociolinguistic fieldwork, apart from providing essential data for our theories and analyses, is that it takes us into what Jesse Jackson called “the stuff of humanity.” At its finest, this experience gives us front row seats to the drama, poetry, and history that ordinary people often afford us when they speak. I have been doing sociolinguistic fieldwork, in various parts of the Caribbean and the U.S., for almost 50 years. Not every experience has been sublime, and I’ve certainly known the trepidations first time fieldworkers and many seasoned veterans share. But every now and again, people share with you the highs, lows, and small delights of their lives in such eloquent ways that you step outside of yourself and just resonate in the experience.
