Things Change…
Don't you know they change
Oh, things change
As long as this world is
turning
Things are gonna change
Gonna keep on changing
Gonna change
That is an old Tim McGraw song. One of my favorites.
Today I was out and about in the old neighborhood getting dog licenses and just
poking around. When I was growing up on the South Side of Youngstown, that was
such a family neighborhood. You see,
we lived on Philadelphia in a well kept neighborhood. Down the street was Mrs.
S ? something. We were related by marriage of my great grandpa and her sister,
or something!! Up the street were ‘the sisters’. They were 3 old maids that
lived on Philadelphia in the next block up. My parents use to walk us up there
all the time in the summer. I don’t know how they were related either, but my
parents really liked them, and as I recall…they always had popsicles. J A few blocks away were my Aunt Eileen and
Uncle Billy and my cousins Linda and Billy. Our family played cards every
weekend, usually at our house or my Aunt Eileens. A block over from them was my
Aunt Stella. That was my grandma’s sister. The baker of the family. Always
baking fresh breads and desserts. J A few blocks DOWN the
street was my Grandma Tressa and my Uncle Bobby. Coming towards home was The
Boulevard, and the Italian Baking Company, St. Doms , Dr. Costas, and our
friends. The South Side… a great place to call home. Today, I actually pulled
over on Lucius and had this awful pit in my stomach as I remembered walking
those streets daily. Between Midlothian and Indianola, that was our territory.
We discovered train tracks and a pond if you would go to the end of Erie St at
Marmion! And, if you followed the tracks far enough to the right, you could
play in the coal fields past Moore’s Lumber Yard. Kevin Daugherty and I could
be found there most all the time!! IF you followed the train tracks to the left
and were busy counting the tracks, you could be at Grandma’s House in no time
flat. My grandma Dugan lived upstairs from us. We & she had a duplex on
Philadelphia. Grandma and I would dress up one Saturday a month and walk to the
bus stop at Philadelphia and Southern Blvd and go downtown to shop, and have a
Strouss’ malt. When I drove through the neighborhood today, I got sick. There
is no one in that section of the South Side that gives a crap about their
homes. Boarded up windows. Broken out windows. Beer bottles everywhere and … it’s
a slum. The house on the left (above) was my Grandma and Uncle Bobby’s home.
Its since been torn down. It was a drug house. My grandma would cry if she saw
the South Side now. I look at these young girls, smoking crack, or heroin or
whatever the drug of choice is now. Having babies and dropping out of school. I
want to stop, and ask them things… things I don’t understand. Things that I
wonder about. The house on the right (above) is where I lived until riots on
Cottage Grove and Southern Blvd and Market Street forced my parents to sell and
move to the West Side. It was safe there.
*
Today, I really saw my town for what it is now.
Whenever the scanner blares, it’s always because of the South Side. Its drug
infested, crime infested and after dark, most people go another way to get to
their destination. Homes are decapitated, neighbors are robbing each other for
drug money. Kids are living in this and it breaks my heart. I wish that all
those kids, between Midlothian and Indianola, between Market and South Ave
could grow up like we did. No, life was not perfect. We had ‘things’ and I was
pretty much ALWAYS in trouble with my folks!! But, no one shot guns. No one
even heard of crack, and HEROIN, was something that we all feared and never
even thought about. When we wanted to play we yelled “KEVIN, SEAN, COME OUT TO
PLAY” and then our parents wouldn’t see us for hours. I would love to see kids
feeling safe, and loved and happy. When did it all change? Well if I were good
with dates, my guess would be… 1968-1969. It was a heart wrenching day.
*
Lord,
protect the kids. Awaken the parents. Take away crack and heroin. Lord, forgive
us.
Things change…
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