Scenes from a Childhood
1968 to 1970
We once lived in a second story apartment with a permanently missing window. Maintenance was a little slow. Burglars would climb in through the window at night and take our stuff. Initially, they started in the kitchen, which was located farthest from the bedrooms. They got bolder. They would eventually go into our bedroom several times. It scared the shit out of me. I thought these people might kill me.
I was once playing in a gravel yard with another boy. A gang of kids came over the top of a nearby pile of red bricks. One of them picked one up, threw it and hit the kid next to me in the head. I ran. To this day, I have no idea what happened to him.
I’m walking upstairs to our apartment when our neighbor prods his dog to bite me. I have to get numerous rabies shots because of it.
I got hit in the eye with a rock thrown by one of my admirers. I spend two weeks in the hospital with a patch over it. They were a little worried about it. Later in life, while living in Markham, I would be struck in the nose with a BB. It was half an inch under my right eye. I know who did it, but could never prove it. More about that later.
Though ’68 through ’70 was hell, there were a few bright spots. We were unsupervised. We did whatever the hell we wanted. We would the ride trains and buses all over Chicago. We tried to get out of the hood as much as possible. In those days, both the Field Museum and The Museum of Science and Industry were free. We would go down to Wells St. in Old Town and look at all the hippies and head shops. The train stops right at Chinatown. So we went there often. We also went to some sketchy places and were in some sketchy situations.
