Page 11 - The Crown 2015-2017

6. The black and white televisions went off at 10:00 p.m. Dead. You could
not play remote and go from channel to channel. You went to bed.

7. The only times you heard gun fire was when New Year’s Eve ended.
Shooting the challenges of the old year.

8. Our parents owned guns, but, you dare not touch it. They were put up.
Locked up until they heard an unwelcomed noise outside or until New
Year’s Eve.

9. We played hide and go seek, hop scotch, ring around the rosie, Jacks,
marbles, Red Light-Green light, Simon Says, Blind Man's Bluff, Red
Rover, Crack the Whip, Musical Chairs, Freeze, London bridge, jump
rope, rode around on a broom for a horse; doody bug, doody bug come
on out, boys made their go carts from wood and lawnmower wheels.

10. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

11. We bought our groceries in the hood. Our prescriptions were filled by
pharmacists in the hood. Our clothes were cleaned and pressed in the
hood.

12. The hood made us who we are.

13. We were invited by a group of ladies called the Top Ladies of Distinction
to become members of an organization that they named the Top Teens
of America.

14. Many of us were poor children, but, our economic status did not define
us.

15. Some of us lived in single parent homes, but, we were not labeled at-risk
or told we were disadvantaged.

16. These Top Ladies became our extended family.

17. Consequently, it was the best of times. We were economically,
disadvantaged, at-risk teenagers who were told we would one day be the
doctors, the lawyers, the principals, the teachers, the preachers, the
pharmacist, the architects, the scientists.

18. We were told we would be successful if it killed us.

19. You remember your mother telling you, “I brought you into this world, I
will take you out.” We were believers.

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