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.”
Love. Your mom
Well growing up was pretty hard for me my mom didn’t always have the bills paid on time didn’t always Keep a house but. One I got really tired of it and started doing things I regret instead of waiting for her to get right and me getting a job
Differences
Everybody needs to have a place to live and everybody needs to get along. Out here where i live now there’s a mixed races but mostly Mexicans even though we have different cultures and beliefs were all able to come together and have a great time.
THE CHANGE OF THE NEW GENERATION
Around the time I was growing up in the early 2000s my community was very involved in activities around the community and with our kids here. Now in 2019 we cant get that much involvement to support our community and kids.
Always listen
Many people may say. Things they don’t mean ! The community I growing up in was a community of violence if you have ever been told to stop doing things please stop when you are told always listen !
Don’t Have Nothing
Gang Violence
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 .
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.
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 .
Something out of nothing
Boynton Beach high schools prom walk through was cancelled. I remember my Bruce being upset about it. Then she got the news that one of the students told everybody that it was at his house. So they all came together to make it a real walk through. This shows how you can make something out of nothing.
Violence (Story #614)
Seeing the police take my father way for life
Dance- Rickia Petty
I was raised in a time that war was all too comfortable and it seemed everyone around me was in a frinzy. I learned how to dance with the songs in my head to help me get through those times.
God bless
No mother should have to bury their child. The shooting that happened about a month ago in my area where I stay devastated a lot of people including me. I did not know the family but I supported them.
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.
Don’t become
Growing was odd for me I was thinking that if I do this I’ll become better but me doing it didn’t make me come better it made me. A threat to the system now I can’t get the job I want all because I seen the. Grown ups doing things
My community (Story #315)
Living in my community is when you see two people fighting and another person is just recording it or “hyping” it up .People in this community don’t see things until they know when to stop.people use phones to control their life instead of books .back than when slavery was still happening,they would try to run away to learn how to read .
Support (Story #611)
Support in the glades, sorority
Weight
Growing up was not so hard but I went through the struggle with my family and friends .
The Church
I have 4 kids and a while ago I was being evicted from my house. I had been laid off and just started a temporary job and I just wasn’t making enough to pay all the bills. I was ashamed with my situation but spoke to my pastor and prayed about it. My church donated money to me and help me keep my house. Now I have a new good paying job and a brand new family my church.
Ice cream man
If you live in the heart of Boynton you would know about the ice cream man. If you hungry he got what you need. I remember the kids running to get stuff before everything run out. Kids love him, he’s like family.
Love of my city: Delray Beach
I like it in my neighborhood. Every time I accomplished something they put me in the news paper. Came down to Delray from Alabama. Lived in a very close tight knit neighborhood. Moved into this neighborhood back in 70’s, west side. Big dreams, read lots of magazines and showed black successful people and events in cities like Chicago, Newyork, etc. Dreamed of meeting those people. Ran for radio station in wpb hosted by urban league; talent show. Happiest day was when Jackson ran for president. Letter to attend convention in Atlanta delivered few days later. Invited into the private reception…
The Child Who Looked Different
When growing up I was mixed with African American and Chinese . I would get picked on very often especially when my Chinese mother would drop me off to school. Many kids would question me if I were to claim to be African American like my father. All the kids I grew up with would pick on me and my facial features that favored my mother. Which also made me a very guard child because I didn’t like when people would question my ethnicity even to this day.
Make the right friends
An important day in my life was when I first got out of prison Life wasn’t always great for me and it wasn’t always good but when I went down that bad road and had the wrong friends I was in and out of jail I was selling drugs Things was just bad for me don’t need you guys making the same mistake I made
Don’t judge a book by its cover
A very secluded family lived across the street from me my entire childhood and we barely spoke or interacted. I left for college and after returned to live with my parents. I notice one day a very nerdy looking young lady coming back and forth and decided to approach her. Well, she ended up being the love of my life and we are still together. I’m glad I fell in love with her and not her appearance.
Scary story- Rickia Petty
I was in my room and playing cards then my friend ran in yelling my name i was confused he said they found a dead body i said a dead body? He said a dead body i said where they said in a lake they went to the scene but my mom said i couldn’t go
20 years teaching in the glades
Growing up for an interview at P.H.S to be a teacher I had to compete with another teacher and a number of the people in the interview become very good friends and I Romberg the teachers at the cool try to adapt to the school to become a teacher. And I am bless that I been able to teach multiple teachers in the classes. By the time I was retire I was teaching the children and grandchildren of the student I taught
My important moment
Delray Beach isn’t my neighborhood. Moved here in 1990 as an consultant. Recently moved not long ago. In an important moment was when I moved here after working here for so long in the county.
What’s done is done- Rickia
I remember when my grandfather told me to live life because when its all over and done, it is all over and done. You die with all the dreams you have ever dreamed, so make your life count. It was bad in my neighborhood. We couldn’t even speak to kids that was your color, but when it is all said and done it is only on heaven and one hell.
Coming to the city
I was in Haiti .Things was really hard so my family moved to the states and ended up in Boynton Beach. Things was different but was accepted it. All of crime and police lights.
How I became me
Going to College Changed my life.
Preparation
Going off to college, and meeting others from other neighborhood and making connections. My community prepared me for this.
Go get it (Story #219)
Important moment is when my friends started going to jail or getting killed. Around here it’s not that many options. You just have to find a way to go get what you want whether it’s good or bad.
Pride- Devonte white
My pride was a big part if my life.It was so many times where my pride played a part in my life. It has got me in trouble and out of trouble
Fishing spot
Marina
The good life
Just the daily life in my neighborhood shows how it’s like. My life is peaceful. As long as I’ve lived in Boynton Beach I’ve encountered no problems. Life seems to be great.
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…
Hope and Vote to Change
Growing up in Pahokee, a small city in Western Palm Beach County, with nearly eight thousand residents. The people was proud and full of life. While people with jobs did not earn salaries like middle class earners today, more people had jobs and there own place to live. Today, our communities are faced with homelessness, a lack of jobs, substance abuse and violence without cause. I had a wonderful childhood. I recall having lots of friends and everyone in the community getting along without the drama of guns and gang violence. Parents could leave the kids home alone for a…
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?
The run
A important impact for understanding why I live in this neighborhood is slavery I been living hea for almost 50 years
Don’t do nothing
Growing up in boynton wasn’t always the best we didn’t have the school we wanted we was in and out of Trouble my brother and I Was Trouble makers
Bullied- Rickia
I was about 13 years old. I began to be bullied by the kids in my neighbor hood because my mom white and my father was black. What I didn’t know the was the my family was also being bullied too. I can still hear my father say to me “Son they talked about Jesus, the greatest man that walked the earth what makes you think they will not talk about you
Gheto
I grew up in a ruff community on 8 street. I had to do a lot of things on my own I haven’t have much help with my parents.
Safety first (Story #481)
I remember one night I was at home. Next thing you know I hear gunshots. I thought nothing of it until I went to watch the news the next day and seen somebody was shot and killed by my house. It worried me about my safety.
Nurse -Devonte white
Important moment in my life was going through nursing school. I always wanted to be a nurse and i made it into reality
My community (Story #423)
My neighborhood is filled with children,I see them having fun playing ball but I also see them fighting. They either arguing with their parents or just fighting with the other kids . long been clear that children from troubled neighborhoods have worse outcomes as adults. But it has been much harder to disentangle whether these neighborhoods cause the later disadvantage, or whether the hardships that lead families to bad neighborhoods are the problem.
The House Fire
In my neighborhood we view each other as a big family. I remember when my close friend that also lives in my neighborhood house caught on fire. The church and community as a whole decide to help her and her whole family get back on their feet.
Love at first sight
Im Native American and I was in college when i met my husband. I was at lunch eating my food and some football players came and tried to take my food then my husband i did not know was going to be my husband came and defended me.
My community (Story #365)
An important moment in my life is when someone who you loved the most turns out to be dead or injured.You don’t know how to feel you feel like nobody and this world can’t fix this.My community people would just come to me and say “sorry for your lost” but they know how people can change when someone was injured in their life too
Look outs
I started earlyOne of the most important moments in my life was when I met the coach of Carver High Football team. He saw me playing in the streets with my friend and told me I have a talent. Everyday he would pick me and my friends up and take us to football practice and take us home at night Because my parents couldn’t drive and most parents in the neighborhood did not have cars. He remained my coach all the way through high school and help me get a scholarship to go to college. That where I’m from, a…
The hoa blues
The former president of our home owners association
Work together
You have probably gotten this story a hundred times already but the 2 shootings that had happened this year. Our young men are dying for no reason. They didn’t get to live their life. This is not good. The community needs to work together to prevent this.
Refresh the page to see another random set of stories or view the stories and micro-narratives in a list.