Monday, June 4, 2012

Where I Come From........

Where I come from.....I come from a time where a village still raised a child, where you knew your neighbors and they knew you, they were almost like family, because you knew them almost as long. I come from a time and place where, half the stuff that's now accepted was NEVER accepted. Boys become men the old fashion way. Where you couldn't wait to grow up, so you could start acting like your brother, uncles or the old Gs around the way. And those same old Gs looked out for you and kept you out of harms way, by sending you home, when trouble was near or by NOT encouraging you to hang on the corner, hit the weed or the forty, like they did or any other activity that you weren't ready for. A place where summer in the city wasn't just a song, it was what you lived for, because it meant NO more school, books or teachers till september. It meant playing in the street, till your mother yelled thru the window, because it was dinner time, then hanging on the stoop or the park bench with your boys till bedtime. Yes summer in the city, where you got your "rep" on what you did in and on these streets, playgrounds, fields and courts (basketball not criminal) Where your "name and rep" got you out of trouble, NOT in trouble. A time where, if boys from another block, neighborhood or project came around your way, it was too ball not brawl, because they heard your crew had "game" and they wanted competition not beef. Where also rolling with your boys meant, looking for girls, getting numbers, and talking to them FACE TO FACE, NOT from behind a computer screen, IMing or chatting. Your boys were your "brothas," you shared things with them, and no one else, they had your back and you had their. A time and place where you learned your basic hood rules from the "CODE" of the street (never snitch on your peoples, mind your business, see and don't see and a few others) I come from a time and place that has LONG since been forgotten. Somewhere that wasn't sesame street, where you know you was 'REAL AND HARD" and fake and phony wasn't respect and you didn't hide behind computers, blogs or whatever they hide behind now.  Where the "hot" hood was because someone bought the cops, because of the activity they were involved in, NOT because the new york times wrote an article about it. Where you stayed in your "hood" because it was home, and others never dared to step into your "hood." Where a good "knuckle game" trumped a knife or a gun. And where if you had to fight it was one on one, no jumping in, and usually you became friends afterwards. A time and place where ten years olds, were ten year olds, and BIG MOMMA was just that, she wasn't thirty eight, with three grandchildren already. And BIG MOMMA had the respect of EVERYONE in the neighborhood..... Man I'mma stop right here, because writing this, takes me back to that time and place, that has been LOOOOOONG since forgotten and doesn't even exist ANYMORE, well in our memories, in old pictures, videos, old home movies and movies of that era, the 70s and 80s. DAMN to think of what we have seen and survived though...Imjussayin. Well this is where I came from, where do you come from???