Back in the Day

I love Hip-hop! We have a great new radio station here that is dedicated to Hip-Hop/Rap music. They started by simply playing music to see how popular it was, and low and behold! People were talking. About a month or two after the initial broadcast, we had a new station complete with fresh new radio personalities and sponsors. We live in a very conservative province, you see, so it really could have gone either way. This genre of music has become so mainstream that people of all ages listen to it. I know why I do. It goes back to my childhood.

After my parent's divorce when I was 7, my mother, brother and I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in "The Hood", as you will. Anyone from here recognizes the address when I say that's where I lived. I had friends of various races, never knowing what it was to be "prejudice" because we all had one huge commonality. WE WUZ ALL PO. I am very grateful for this as it gave me the basis for a life without judgment of others based on appearances. As I said, Nova Scotia is a conservative province and has a long history of contention among different races(particularly between white and black people). It was while living there that I developed my love of Hip-Hop/Rap music. Every Saturday, all the kids from the neighbourhood would take the bus to the other side of town to rollerskate at "Wheelies". We donned our tight jeans and highcut sneakers, brought our own K-Mart special rollerskates to began our weekly adventure. The tongues on the skates were tied down to the boot with the laces, and fuzzy dice hung down the sides for all to admire. We were kings and queens of that stadium whether others knew it or not. It was all about the hip-hop there, and of course, the slow tunes to show off the skating/dancing technique we had all been working on.

The roller rink is long gone, replaced with a large car dealership, but the memories live on from that time in my life. Gone are the days of children being out and about without parental supervision--even in large groups. There are unseen dangers lurking everywhere that we were oblivious to at the time. I mourn this loss of innocence for my own children, who will never have the freedom I had.

Thank you to Z103.5 for allowing me to reflect on these fond memories.