Residents were asked, “Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.” Explore 50 responses below, selected at random. Which stories capture your attention? (Some responses were transcribed by youth volunteers.) To learn more about the storyteller and how they interpreted their response, click “Zoom In.”
Protection-Rickia
See me i was the man of the house my father wasn’t there he was a coward and we are from boynton but we moved to the other side this was a little bit less than what i had expected and i would do things a man supposed to do in the house to make sure my mom and my sisters were ok and in around the 90s i started selling drugs i had my own house by this time but not to far from my mom and sisters. I remember her calling me late at night saying they were…
Growing up in Boynton Beach (Story #326)
Growing up in Boynton Beach in 1963 it was very tough for a young black person and racism was very strong in Boynton Beach
Pray for the best
Me having kids is an important moment. Everybody in Boynton knows what it’s like having to raise your kids. Worrying when they put if they safe or in trouble. All we do is pray for the best lives for our child.
Not the same
Things changed out here , the streets used to be full of kids. Now days kids are getting killed and on all type of drugs. Things have got tougher around here also. The community can’t come together for nothing .
lost and found
one moment in my life is the time when this girl was kidnapped right and the whole community came togheter to help find her.
Love and cherish
I have a great neighborhood. Recently when I lost my wife everyone came together and took care of me for months. I had been married for 52 years and they knew how important she is to me.
Truth, streets, and what comes with it
I saw death the morning of my high school graduation. It let me know about
Moving
Growing up in my neighborhood i was the only white kid there but i tried so hard to fit in. I would just go with the flow of doing what the others did. I couldn’t play football at all and i couldn’t play basketball but that’s something everyone was great at but i was a great runner and when we raced everyone wanted to be on my team or wanted me to be on there’s and it made me feel great
Snitches get stitches
In my neighborhood there has been many killings, fights all of that. My son was recently killed at a house party. The saddest thing about it was no one seen anything which I don’t believe this community needs to let go of the whole idea “snitches get stitches”
Lack of support
Family fueds
Elizabeth Alice Green story
Back than many people didn’t know what to think because their was so many different things going around in our community and we didn’t know what to do so many people just hope that it would make our community great and some bad .slavery back than would be the caused for all what bad things in our community that is still today .our community didn’t changed .
LOVE (Story #632)
GROWING UP WAS EVERYTHING I HAD THE NICEST HELPFUL PARENTS THEY GAVE AND HELP ME
We bleed the same
Till this day we still don’t have freedom back where I was growing up I was beat for nothing accuse for nothing the police hated my kind
The Neighborhood Full of Crime
There has been many fights for many years, Loud rowdy fights. The police is constantly coming to our neighborhood to break a fight up or arrest someone for a crime. It’s been like this for years and it should honestly stop. My grandson was recently arrested because he was linked to a shooting. It needs to change and I hope and pray one day it does.
Fun days
I grew up in Spartanburg South Carolina it was nothing like it was today. When i was younger around 16 we was aloud to go out and have a good time. When i was 18 me and my cousin went to the pool and we met two guys and they asked if we wanted to go out and we agreed but there was two similar cars and they got out to go get something but i grew impatient. I was in the wrong car blowing the horn and they come out the house and caught me in the car understanding…
Much Better
Better to live here from where I lived. Better opportunities in the community.
My Little Brother
My neighborhood is really bad and violently always has been. My younger brother got shot and killed at 15 all he was doing was playing outside with his friends. The police that came to investigate weren’t much of any help they were very rude. They accused my brother of being apart of a gang and that being the reason why he was shot and killed at just 15. My neighborhood needs lots of help and pray which is what I try my best to do.
Haiti Family
I grew up projects in belle glade the neighborhood was very nice. They will help out anytime if you need it, friends will help the best way they can. And what I love most about belle glade is they would cook food for anyone that is starving. My part of town in belle glade was very helpful its like having a family.
Katrina
Hurricane
Halloween in delray
Last Halloween we went to our neighbors house and we had a thousand homes in our community and a lot of young families halloween is a good event in our community my neighborhood is friendly oriented and family oriented and have lots of fun
Don’t be the one
Well coming up in the city of lake worth. I wasn’t Always a girl who had friends No one liked me because of my skin or where I came from they used to pick on me. , call me names , billy me because what I wear and what I language I speak
Living in my community
Neighborhoods with poor quality housing, few resources, and unsafe conditions impose stress, which can lead to depression. The stress imposed by adverse neighborhoods increases depression above and beyond the effects of the individual’s own personal stressors, such as poverty and negative events within the family or work-place.
Grandparents- Rickia
Growing up in my neighborhood was fun we had lots of fun but segregation was not too far over. So my grandparents still didn’t let me go outside with them and i didn’t live with my mother i saw no wrong with the white kids but she believed that they looked down on us.
Segregation
An important moment in my life is when segregation is now continuing again in our community.Many people don’t see how badly people treat us . We are equal and have the rights as everyone else . Growing up here in the 1940s and 1950s, couldn’t visit the public library near My house, but instead had to travel to the “colored” library in the historically black room I attended a school for black children, where we received second-hand books, and where the school day was half the length of that of white schools, because the black school had too many children…
Eric Armor
Many people are afraid to walk outside some are even afraid to walk their dog.but when you realize it’s your NEIGHBORHOOD you can control it yourself you can make it a better town than people who are afraid too.
Protection
My neighbors would always keep an eye on us to protect and that help me become a good person to watch out for people myself !
Gangs-Rickia
I grew up in a time that gangs became our family and they saved my life. When family couldn’t do for me they did. My mom was on drugs when i was in my early 20s i had a son so i had to get out of it we Destruction peace in my neighborhood
One Big Family
My neighbor next door made sure that I got home safely from school while my parents were at work. The community was one big family.
Change for the better (Story #478)
2 shootings has happened that I know about his year in my community. That hurts me. Why is what I ask myself. Is this what the world is coming to?
Friends are supportive
I remember my mother died. She was a well known woman around the neighborhood. The day of her funeral there was atleast 200-250 people arrived. I was so shocked. This shows how supportive the people in Boynton are.
Extra items- laroderick richardson
My neighborhood is normal we have parties the kids always playing. With each other a story is that a new person moved in and we had a party and invited him and he came and brought soda and cake and pizza we did not know he will bring all that stuff but he did
Humor saves lives-Rickia
When I was a teenager, I was the smallest kid in my neighborhood. I got beat up, pushed around and joked on all the time until I learned how to tell jokes and make everyone laugh.
Neighbors in need
During hurricane Irma my neighbors came together to gather water
A hole left in me
When Greg Bryant jr was shot in a drive by shooting on i-95. It impacted me and my brother a lot because we grew up with him and that shooting made me look at life different. I started doing things different and staying out of trouble
Because of what I look like
I have been stopped by a cop just for walking one day. He stopped got out the car and asked where I was headed. I responded in a polite manner. He continued to watch me and later started to follow me until I went into the store I was headed to. I felt some type of way about this.
Love- Rickia
I am so lonely since my Walter died. We loved our neighborhood and we loved each other. I think everyone should have a love and a relationship that help you get through the worst times and also help create the best moments. Walter was that and more. He was a great Father, grandfather and he served the country until the day he died.
Basketball
Basketball really save my life. If I wasn’t at the basketball courts I would of been selling drugs.Not that many options around here.
After the Storm
After Hurricane Jeanne and Frances, all the neighbors were checking on each other, sharing resources and in general reaching out to support each other, even though on a day to day basis, there may not be much interaction.
Born and raised in Delray Beach- Kene
Giving birth to my children. I was born and raised in Delray so it was nice to have all my family and friends present. And something I’m looking forward to oneday, is purchasing my own house in Delray for my family.
My child
Important moment in my life was having my first child . He changed my life in a way. With out him I would of been in the streets of boynton running wild
The hoa blues
The former president of our home owners association
Difference in the city- Rickia Petty
Growing up out west of boynton made me looked at definitely than i would look if i was to live east i know this because i had family who lived further east and i notice when i went over. There was fights and everything on the east side also more African Americans when i came to my side there were more white people.
The Take
Took over my grandmothers house
Changing
Anybody that know my family, know we come from a very religious family. I didn’t understand any of it until I was shot and almost killed by my best friend over a fight about money. We were both living illegally so the police didn’t take us seriously. We both had been in and out of jail but when I almost died I found God for myself, now I live a good life
Belle glade is the number 1 place to come live.
I have been in belle glade for 37 years. I am a farm worker. Whenever i have problems there is always coming to help in belle glade. If i am sick my neighbors will be there for me because it is small community. I went to the hospital and they took care of me in the hospital. This is a good place to live.
One good makes the world around.
I always user to help my neighbor. I use to pick stuff up for her, and go to the store. She was disabled.
Growing up around Boynton Beach
Growing up in Boynton Beach in 1964 it was very tough for a young black person segregation Was going on and it was a lot of racism .
Scared
I never thought me growing up was so ruff for me. My mom and dad died in a car accident. I was raised by my grandparents raised me until they past away I been living from house to house in finish house still didn’t go off to college .
Life after school- Kene
When I was growing up I was always home alone. My mom worked 6 days a week from about 10am to 10pm so I was normally by myself. Sometimes some of the bad kids from the neighborhood would come around and I would pretend I wasn’t home because if I opened the door and they knew I was alone, then they would likely come into my house and take or do whatever they wanted.
Y community
Thirty-five percent of participants stopped important activities after their events, with personal illnesses having this effect most frequently. In addition to these negative consequences, participants reported positive consequences of their stressful events for their lives.
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