It's Just People

My parents escaped the Brooklyn Jewish and Italian ghettos as children. So they never understood why I would gravitate towards the French Canadian Hispanic African ghetto I live in. When people say "It skips a generation," they are correct. Sadly our families and friends are scared of our tenement neighborhood. It's just people, I say. They are my neighbors. Don't be afraid. When I was small I would ride the subway into NYC from Brooklyn with my grandma. She spoke to everyone and wasn't afraid of anything except becoming fat. She and my grandpa loved to eat, nosh, and share their food. Grandma swam every morning at 7AM on Brighton Beach before work, in the ocean!