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That Wasn’t Normal And The Kids Are Far From Okay
Tales from a dysfunctional youth
I literally googled the statute of limitations before I started writing this because hey, you never know where something might go, right? I could legally tell you about the broken windows, black eyes, and kiddie versions of would be gang fights that happened among a piss drunk group of teenagers at some local neighborhood playground, where at least half of the kids who I grew up with would go on and find different ways to die — different but similar.
Very few of them were news worthy but the ones that were unfortunately tended to involve the people directly closest to me. One time as I flipped through “The Northeast Times”, a small local Philadelphia neighborhood newspaper with a pretty respectable reputation, the “Areas 5 most wanted” caught the corner of my eye and quickly gained my full attention and for good reason. I knew 2 of the five, would have called them friends of sorts at different points growing up — and they were related. What’re the odds right? I’m talking the kids I skateboarded and graffiti’ed with as a punk ass pre-teen who was too cool for school , on our neighborhoods corners and parks. Wreaking just enough havoc to make it worth the while, while never really hurting anyone but ourselves or each other for the most part. There was honor among thieves in those…
