As of late it seems that the class blog has been getting more personal with the odd story being shared here and there. Here's one of mine.
I don't live in the best neighborhood. I live downtown, which is bittersweet at best.
My house is cavernous and terribly cheap to rent. When I first met my land lord he laughed when he first saw me and said "White boy huh?" I nodded my head confirming that yes indeed I was white and then signed the lease. Before my land lord left he said "Good luck white boy." and then began laughing as he drove off.
I didn't find the comments offensive. I just remember thinking that as far as ghettos went this one wasn't all that bad. And it's true. The area I live in now is fairly safe. It has its share of drug dealers and half way houses. But for the most part things are relatively quiet around here. And to be honest, I'm really glad to live here.
I say all this because, before Florida, my friend Shane and I unknowingly moved into one of the worst ghetto's Chicago had to offer. Within the first month our apartment had been broken into. All this did was enforce a new rule of whoever was going to the bathroom past 10:00 p.m. had to knock on the others door four times; which really is as maddening and useless as it sounds.
Shortly after the break in Shane and I were told in class by an astonished classmate that the movie Judgment Night was filmed where we lived. Judgment Night indeed… That very night as we walked back home Chris pointed to some bridge and said " Yep. Look, that's the scene where the bus breaks down..." And that was also the scene where a group of men came out of the inky blackness and beat Chris and me before taking our money.
A lot more happened while we lived there, but all in all it was a good experience. My grades had never been better because in a needless way, my surroundings were teaching me not to waste my time or my potential; which is part of the reason I still cling to the outskirts of such places now. All of this is not normal I know, but the rent is terribly cheap.
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2 comments:
This post makes me rethink where I lived when I was younger. My mother was a single parent raising three children and sometimes we were not safe. We had our apartment broken into several times and we kids had to fight quite a bit to ensure we would not be messed with on a regular basis.
Due to those experiences, I now feel safe living in gated places and not by myself. Where I am currently living, there is no gate which makes me feel unsafe. At night, I check the front door more than three times then the patio door three times before I can go to bed. In the middle of the night I find myself checking the doors when I get up to use the bathroom.
I am happy to hear that you're comfortable living in places I fear living because I do believe it makes you a stronger person. I find myself to be weak because I can not return to those places I had been in my past which did not yield great experiences.
This is a great post. Thanks for sharing your experience with us! I appreciate your courage (yeah, I think one needs courage only to think of living downtown). I know that cheap may be better, but sometimes may be not! I don't like even to drive downtown. There's something ghostly in there I don't want to deal with. It is not only a matter of fastening the doors, but it is also a mental set I don't have and I wouldn't like to have.
You be careful, ok?
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