Childhood Memoir

Delray was a dirty, crime-ridden ghetto. Of course I was too young to know or understand this at the time. We lived in a one family house on the corner of Burdeno street, a few feet away from the junkyard, across the street from an open field that once bedded a couple of houses that burned, and then were torn down. Abandoned or burned houses were common in the city of Detroit. Most abandoned homes were claimed by the city’s growing problem with gangs. Other criminals would use these homes for their crimes, and I don’t think examples of this is necessary, but if you know the history of Detroit, then you would understand what I am talking about.

It was a small three-bedroom brick house, with six of us living in it. I was just a baby then, but I do remember certain things about that house. We had a dog that lived on the front porch, and my sister had a cat. The girls and the boys each shared a room, and my mother had the third, which was rarely used, and again I was young so I don’t quite remember everything. My mother usually slept on the couch though, at least that’s what I do remember, and I’m not really sure what the third bedroom was for. I don’t have many memories of either of my parents in the house on Burdeno Street, but as I told you before, I was just a baby. I’m not sure how long we lived in that house, but as a young child I do remember the next-door neighbors.

Mildred, Phil, and Bernard lived in the house next door. They were an older couple, and Bernard was their only child. Bernard was really cool. He was the first handicap I had ever seen or spent time with, so he amazed me. When Bernard was 13 years old, he was walking home from school when he collapsed on the front porch, having a seizure. He never walked again. He also had a horrible skin condition, I’m not quite sure what the name of it was, but there were always blisters and open sores on his face, and he rapidly lost his hair. I was young when I met Bernard. He had a high IQ, and always