I grew up in the city that you either hear too much about or have never heard of. The city of Baltimore wasn't always as bad as it is now when I was growing up. While there is a lot of negative there is some positive too. In this article I listed my favorite past time of growing up here and my least favorite about it. It's small but those small things meant the most to me no matter if it impacted me in a good way or not. As much as a bad reputation it gets, Baltimore is still my hometown, the only one I ever known. So enjoy reading!

1. That one lady in your neighborhood that sold "icey cups"

An "icey cup" if you don’t know is a frozen cup of whatever flavored juice that you could usually buy from a lady in your neighborhood that sold snacks out her house all day. They were about 50 cents or a dollar. And when you didn’t have the money on a really hot day, she probably let you slide because all the other kids got some. I remember saving up my allowances just to go to her store because it was cheaper and closer than the other corner stores. My friends and I would race there on our bikes and the last person there had to buy someone an extra snack (other than the icey cups). If I remember correctly those icey cups were our way of cooling down after playing games all day around the neighborhood.

2. Playgrounds were where all the dance competitions were held

During the school day, if we were allowed to have a recess, the playground was not only just the best place to play freeze tag and catch one catch all, but it was also the best place to have dance offs. Someone would pull out their razor phone or their boost mobile 730 (you were popular if you had one of those back then) and play the latest hip hop music. We would form a circle and let 2 people go at it and vote at the end. The winner had to go against someone else until they lost. There was no tangible reward if you won, just the satisfaction of beating everyone else. Most of the time it was songs by the Ying Yang twins, Chris Brown, and Bow Wow. It was probably the highlight of the school day now that I'm looking back on it.

3. Staying below the windows

Though I mentioned some nice memories from growing up, there are a lot of negative ones too. A term parents use to have to use: staying below the windows because stray bullets from guns don’t have names on them. The last thing a parent needed or wanted was for a bullet to come flying in the house hitting someone. I remember my father would tell my brother and I not to go outside and to stay below the windows for the remainder of the day. He usually knew what the gangs in our area were up to because they were cool with my dad, but that didn’t mean we were safe from bullets flying everywhere. It was scary at first, but then you kind of get used to it. The thing is you never know what could happen next.

The most recent experience was about two years ago when I was living in a neighborhood called Park Heights. I told my mom I was going to the car to get my phone charger. The moment I opened the door shots were fired from two different angles: one was coming from the alley next to me and the other was coming from across the street from my house. They were shooting at each other. I remember closing the door and locking it then army crawling up the steps hearing my mother scream my name in the background because she thought I was outside. She thought her baby was out there in the middle of their crossfire. There were about 40 or more shots by the time I reached the top of my steps. Long story short I didn’t get my phone charger that night.

4. Not knowing the difference between gun shots or fire works on 4th of July

This is usually a time where everyone likes to buy firecrackers and play with them all day. The problem is trying to figure out if it is just a really loud firecracker or a gunshot, especially downtown. For some reason year after year something really dangerous happens downtown for the 4th of July yet people still go down their. I have been down there once during that holiday and when the shooting started happening I promised myself never again. I know people who still get dressed up just to go. Good luck running in heels through hundreds of people.

5. Eating crabs or crab cakes at every cookout

In Baltimore crabs are EVERYTHING. When I was younger and even to this day, crabs are present at basically every cookout. I still get shocked and surprised when someone says that they have never had crab cakes or ate crabs before. I'm like WHATTTT!? I have to help you because you have been missing out on life. Like inBaltimore the first thing we learn how to do is eat crabs. My mom used to say that if you can't open them yourself then you can't eat them, there was no way I was missing this divine opportunity.

Thanks For Reading!!!!