one moment in my life was the time I got pulled over by the police and he was giving me a bit of trouble and wouldn’t let me leave a few of my neighbors came along and I was finally relieved of his presence
Gender: Male
A fire that I won’t remember- laroderick richardson
I was playing around and my dad was grilling and the oil and fire got on him so my neighbor took the water hose and cooled him off and it worked and I thanked him so much
Can’t take the muck out of the muck.
You could make a living. If you wanted to work, there was work. Finished high school (Lakeshore, 67). Moved to Hartford, CT. 8 siblings. Spent half his life here. Tired of cold weather up north. Retired and came home. Has two kids (grown up). It’s home.
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.
Surviving
Living around here is pretty tough. At times you realize how people act as a community and how everything is seen. On an individual level it depends on how you look at it. All the things kind of go not so well. Growing up here i realized that this is a survival city. If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere. Living here will toughen you up or fold you. There is no in between. I wish as a community as a whole people could see the daily struggles. A few individuals ruin it for the whole. For examples we have had multiple fast food stores that couldn’t stay open simply due to the fact that some individuals that would rob them instead of working for their livelihood because that is all they knew, because there is no opportunity. And typically when people became successful they don’t want to live here anymore because someone around here might want to take what they worked for. The people at the end are trying to take care of they’re family and themselves instead of thinking of the community. The people here are kept down and not given chances. Outsiders are scared of the people from here. There is still good people though like myself who try to do good and make a difference and not fall into the trap and move on past all of the struggle. To find a better way of living where people don’t judge you because of where you are from.
Angels Surrounding me
They were arguing about a girl. He left and I was standing there talking to one of the guys. Someone came from behind and hit my with a baseball bat. I had seizures and was foaming from the mouth. I was in a coma for 9months and 2 weeks. Then I woke up and stayed in the hospital for another month in Jackson Memorial. I couldn’t play high school football after that.
Working for the US Sugar Co-Operation
Born in 1947, started working when I was 15 years old. Most important thing I experienced coming up is due to workforce-the sugar cane. I got older, getting a job with us sugar-I worked for 35 years. It was hard, very hard work but you had to make a living somehow. I also picked spring beans but the harvesters took the work away. I grew up in lake harbor and they bussed us to school. Quiet waters used to be lake shore high school and we were bussed from the camps in lake harbor. I had 4 kids, they went to glades central, to make ends meet we did any work we could.
Thank god i am living in a small community.
I am a tailor. People know me. When i come to belle glade, the community is so close that everyone comes to me. When i am not working in the field this is how i make money. Everybody knows me and my reputation and that is why everyone comes to me regardless of Haitian or American whatever.
Don’t Give Up Hope
Growing up in a poor community. Pakhoke was a large work camp. The community raised the children. My mother did farm work. There was no violence. We were taught principles to work for what we want and … We were raised in the church. We love Pahokee, but now it’s sad to see what Pahokee has become as the jobs have moved out. There are broken families, not enough food to eat, not enough guidance for the younger generation. We need to work to enjoy life and earn what we get. There are few kids to have the opportunity to flourish now. I just moved back from Wellington. There is more structure there than here for the kids, especially those who need extra guidance. I would like to see a community center to help the kids with homework and keep the kids from getting into mischief. The kids are falling into traps looking for guidance and we are losing them to the streets and trouble. It’s sad. I could tell you lots of stories good and bad, butI would like to see Pahokee flourish again. It’s going to take more than what we got. Our government leaders are not cutting it. Outsiders come in to help but they are still leaving the community naked. We used to have our own police officers. They knew everyone and were able to deescalate conflict. Everyone respected them because they are our community members. Now the police come from WPB. They do not know us. Some are good, but some I do not trust. Here in Pahokee, we tend to take to people we trust. I hope Pahokee can bounce back.
Living in Belle Glade
This is a very diverse community. A lot of different nationalities. When I came here, I was raised in a community in South Carolina where there wasn’t such a diversity. When I came here, I saw how … a lot of times in a place like this you have to live it to understand it. It’s a community where people get along but I don’t think people are as close as they should be because of their upbringing. It’s very complicated. My brother drove 18 wheelers, filled vegetables from the field and brought them to the plants. I would ride with him and it was fun. Ive been to a lot of parts of Florida with him riding in his truck.