Today is the day! “We’re finally getting out of the war zone,” my brother yells out. As we drive away from our house on Dawson St, I can’t help but miss this place already. It is a war torn area and it is a bad environment for a kid to grow up in, but it was what I called home.
As the car turns right on E 156th Street I turn around to get one last glimpse of our three-story brownstone. The house fades out of view and my mind drifts away. A feeling of loneliness sets in and I can’t help but feel sad. This is where I learned to survive. Where the battles of the street toughened up my character and where I grew up in a hurry.
See my usual, daily routines will never be the same. Walking down the streets and cutting thru the middle of a group of Savage Skulls, without them beating me up, will no longer be normal. Hearing the sounds of their gang fights on a hot summer night will no longer be the reason to interrupt my dreams. What about walking down to Westchester Ave and hangout at the library? I can’t do that anymore. I will have to find a new way to fill my afternoons.
Up ahead is the George Washington Bridge, I can see New Jersey on the other side. I closed my eyes, so as not to feel it and before I knew it we were in New Jersey. I must have fallen asleep in the car and missed the whole crossing because this place definitely looks different. We got off the Turnpike at exit 12 – The sign reads Carteret, New Jersey. This town is so small and surprisingly lined with a lot of trees.
Almost like Leave it to Beaver’s neighborhood – trees and white picket fences everywhere! The town even has a park – Central Park. – with a lake at its center.
We stop to get directions to the house at a corner gas station. “It freezes over in the winter, you know” the gas attendant yells out as he sees me staring at the lake. “We have a Winter festival there every year. Its great skating on the ice!” he adds. All of a sudden I felt a sense of peace come over me. I have not felt that in years. I would always see this type of town on the Beaver’s reruns but I never thought that I would ever see it in person for myself.
As we continue over to our house I breath in the air. It is not musty or smokey. Strangely enough, it smells refreshingly clean and fresh. To my right is the park, kids are playing baseball and on the left are detached homes with front porches just like in Leave it to Braver.
As we pull up to our new house, mom yells out “here it is!” Wow! the house even looks like Beaver’s Pine Street house, except ours are a row of townhouses. It has a front yard for the vegetable garden that mom always wanted!
Mom has always had big dreams – many people looked at them as unattainable. But her biggest dream – getting us out of the Bronx and finding a quiet place to call home – is now fulfilled!
We did it – my mom has realized her dream!