We live in a housing project....It looks like a parody of the good clean, faceless life- God knows the people who live in it to do their best to make it a parody. The beat-looking grass lying around isn't enough to make their lives green. The hedges will never hold out the street, and they know it."
Campbell Terrace, Fayetteville, North Carolina was one of the most notorious housing projects for drugs, raids, shootings, basically a lot of the bad stuff, but for quite some time it was home for me. Recently it was demolished and oh how I longed to have a brick as a memento.
Campbell Terrace was home to a lot of my family - mom, grandmother, cousins, uncles, aunt, and siblings (we had generations living there all at once). Most of the apartments had a small flower bed on the porch and a small patch of grass in the front, but no matter how you tried to dress it up it was still the projects.
The projects - home to drug dealer, users, struggling single mothers, under compensated elderly...but the best place to be to learn about life. There was only one way in and one way out of Campbell Terrace and because it was not a very huge place people knew each other. When something happened we all knew it. I remember seeing the drug dealers, the addicts, the loose women, and teens and young adults who not necessarily wanted to, but at times, wound up being just like them. There was no way to keep out the streets - Campbell Terrace was the streets and everyone knew it - from one end of Fayetteville to the next. When trouble went down, no one saw anything or heard anything. It was surprising though because most of the times it was rather quiet, in a place like CT that spelt trouble...lol!
Just reading a lot of Sonny's Blues took me back.....way back. Though the projects were not the most ideal place, it's where I hold the fondest memories. Memories of corner candy store runs, paper food stamps, sitting with my friends on the front stoop, seeing people out in the streets conversing with one another, big boom boxes in the window, Kool-Aid icee cups, and tube socks with the colored stripes. Those were the days when it was still okay to knock on the neighbor's door and borrow sugar, eggs, and milk or to even ask if their child could come outside and play (we played until it was almost time for the street lights to come on). Though it had its crime, we protected our own. Yeah…….. the good 'ol days.
Everyone from Campbell Terrace had their Blues, but the tune is always different depending on who you ask.
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Wow. It was so interesting to hear you tell your story the other day, and surprisingly, that day, someone else tod me the same story -- about growing up in something like the projects up North, and not having anything, but it didn't feel like nothing, and basically about the same things you did -- about the sense of family and community.
ReplyDeletewow, what a lovely description of your childhood. I had no idea what life like that really was and having fond memories really brings a new lights to "the projects". :)
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ReplyDeleteWe were truly a community, everyone knew almost everyone else's child. Those were the days when it was still okay to knock on the neighbor's door and borrow sugar, eggs, and milk or to even ask if their child could come out side and play. We played until it was almost time for the street lights to come on. Though it had its crime, we protected our own. Alot of the times when you come from areas like that people automatically judged you. Even though we didn't always have the best of things we never went without.
ReplyDeleteFreda, thank you so much for sharing your story both in class and through your blog! I'm so glad to be a part of your group. You shared something in class that really struck me- you said " we never knew we didn't have..." I love how you recall such happiness in the simplest of things.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, keep writing, or should I say typing.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you said the tune is always different depending on who you ask. You're attitude and perspective about that neighborhood is very appealing. The sense of community that you display and compare to with Sonny's Blues is a beautiful tune... Awesome girl.
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