And then there was light.......

I grew up in the inner city, a rather solitary, adventurous kid that enjoyed exploring the busy streets via my skate board. We were city kids. From an early age, we were taught the city essentials. We were taught how to ride a bus, carry mace, and to scream FIRE if anyone we didn't know were to approach us. I was raised in a particularly poor part of the inner city, so crime, drugs, and domestic violence prevailed.

There was a very large park across the street with swings, climbing bars, and a giant wooden maze. There were these big old trees that dotted the park, those trees were the closest thing to nature for us city kids (grin). On the corner was a convenience store and a bus stop. It was any kid's dream and for a short time we had it all to ourselves. It wasn't long before some pretty scary stuff went down in that park. It became a haven for drugs, prostitution, and violence. The park, for all intent and purpose, no longer existed.

Why am writing about that park? It is simple. It is where I saw my first gun. Actually, it is where I saw my first violent crime, and it wouldn't be the last. In that park alone, over the course of ~4-5 years, two men were shot fatally, a friend of my uncle robbed the corner store with a big long gun (now, of course, I know it was a shotgun), and a few stabbings and couple rapes occurred. In the evenings, you could look out the front window and see prostitution. In the summer, sometimes you'd see them having sex on the giant wooden maze that I mentioned earlier. It was crazy, really. You couldn't even cut across the park without shoes on because of all the needles and broken liquor bottles. Sirens and lights seemed to dominate the summers. Our house was robbed several times, surely they must have been looking for drugs. They didn't find any, though. My parents kept their drugs at my grandmother's house, in an upstairs closet. Yeah, guess they didn't think I noticed all the closet traffic (grin).

Seemed like overnight, the city came in and cut down the beautiful trees, removed the giant wooden maze, and the police started cracking down on things. Before long the prostitution disappeared (or should I say it moved to another park nearby) and the drug traffic seemed to minimize. The violence, however, seemed to linger. Heck, it is in that very park I fought my first fight, all of my prolly 75 pounds took a beating from a girl twice my size. Yeah, fair to say I learned how to fight in that park. For that, I am thankful to this day;-). Like I said, it was an especially unsafe place for small children. One day, on our way home from school my sister was was lagging behind, as we rounded the corner of the park. I looked back and she was stopped along side an old green car, talking to the man in the driver's seat. I yelled for her but she seemed to be frozen in time. I dropped my pack and ran back to get her. When I got there, the man was naked and pulling on his member. I'll never forget what he said, as the words and image are forever ingrained in my mind. He said, with a grin "Look, girls, if you pull on it like this....it gets bigger.". I grabbed my sister and we took off running. There is more to the story but I am starting to get lost in the details. Point is, that park was a dangerous place and our young eyes saw a lot of crazy stuff. We grew up fast.

You learn a lot, growing up in the city! You learn how to survive city style, and for many people that never leave the parameters of the city, it seems to suffice.

I am not one of those people(grin).

You might say one day, not too long after university, something clicked, and then there was light...........