Palm Beach County 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.
The stories and micro-narratives they submitted (as part of the We Are Here SenseMaker project) are listed below. Click ZOOM IN to learn more about the community member and how they interpreted their submission. NOTE: Some stories were partially transcribed by volunteers who shortened the narratives and referred to the storytellers in the third person (e.g., “her experience was” instead of “my experience was”).
Growing up in Boynton Beach wasn’t so easy. I been on my own since 16 years old. I have had me ups and downs but I still push through.
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
I raised 6 boys into men and 4 girls into women. I currently have 22 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. I raised them off a salary of being a gardener during a time when it was very difficult to be anything. I now have Doctors , Lawyers and Business Owners
I come from west of Delray where we worked the fields. I remember when I was young our neighborhood would have large dinners after church but you can’t do that anymore because parents these days don’t go to church and we wonder why it’s so much disrespect and killings. We forgot that the community is family and with out it everything is going to crumble.
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.
Well when i was younger our house would always get broken into we would come home and our house would be trashed we spent all night trying to clean it and the police never really did anything about it they always came late