17. The neighborhood was safe, but they lived in constant fear of a drive-by shooting.
“I was about 7-8…? I used to play with this girl that lived a few houses down and across the street (I live in a cookie-cutter, very safe and fairly decent neighborhood, across the street from the high school). Her mother never let us play outside because ‘there could be a drive-by. Any car we see driving by could be someone with a gun and could very easily shoot us and kill us.’ She never let us play in the living room near the windows, either, for that same reason.
Another time I was over there playing with my friend, and the mom pulled me aside. She pointed to a truck she saw parked outside my house on the curb (my uncle’s truck). She told me that it’s actually probably a burglar and he was inside my house and killing my family at that moment. She wouldn’t let me go home either for the fear of me also getting killed. She finally let me go home after my mom called later and requested I come home for dinner.
That family is still crazy, even thirteen years later.”
