In the coming days I will begin to piece together the outline of a book I am thinking about writing. It looks at the the place I grew up and takes place at time when Miami had been a somewhat sleepy little down on the verge of total transformation. And the years I bring about are between the ages of 12 to 15. The dates being 1967 to 1970. It will be a factual account of the city and the world that I lived in and will be told from the view of what I was feeling as I witnessed the events firsthand but with insight and
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Where I grew up everything was about being cool. It was the clothes you wore and the kids you hung out with. Turning 12 and entering the 6th grade would be a awakening I was in many ways not ready for. My years up until now and been like being in some relative obscurity as school and afterschool was just a normal tedius task of doing all the things I had done before.Like any kid the object of my existence was to get through the school day run home and play with the nieghborhood kids. We would fish off the more than 3 canals near my house.Or play tackle football at Jimmy's house. He had the largest yard in the nieghborhood. Funny I deove by ther just the other day and It seemed so small. One could never imagine all the fun we had in that small yard.
My block was a mixture of kids that were either Jewish or Christian. South Miami was a small little city in Metropolitan Dade County. We moved there when I was eight years old and within a year my parents divorced and within a few years my mother remarried. The homes were modest and it was a time where our parents were happy to be living in a nice little area where the kids were all of similar age and the lifestyle was modest but acceptable for the time being at least.
And about a quarter mile to the east was the colored nieghborhood.Black was not yet a term that was mainstream.Dade County was comprised of 27 municipalities all with their own police forces and elected officials.Probably 3 quarters of all colored nieghborhoods were located in Central Miami. South Miami surely was different in that respect we were a mixed bunch but yet still segregated.
It was a great time to be a kid in South Miami. You have to understand we had Black and white television and three channels to choose from. So the only time you really wanted to be home was to sleep. Being with your friends and going to the Riviera Movie theatre or the local Bowling Alley was a riding bikes distance. and then ther was the University of Miami only 3 blocks away.Or we could go by WFUN the one of two rock stations in The Miami area and watch the DJ spin records.They would sometimes let us in and we would nestle up against the dividing class and just stare for hours.That was very cool because we were entering into the Rock and Roll era and the explosion of new music and that genre was just gaining popularity. The beatles of course had made their way To South Miami in a very big way. I just loved going to the Student union or watching the Football team practice. By the age of 11 I woulld show up at so many baseball games they allowed me to become a bat boy. The baseball team nowadways is one of the premiere programs with one of the following of fans averaging at least 2000 people a game. But back then You could count the amount of fans with two hands. And the team was never very good unlike today. That applies for the football team too.Miami has 4 professional sports teams back then there were zero so the University of Miami was all Miami had and they were located in the city of Coral Gables just near the South Miami line.The football team was not very good either but they were larger than life to me.
I have a sister. When you are young your sister is sometimes your worst enemy or your best friend.And she had many friends in the nieghborhood as well but it was different for me in that my friends were always together.There was my next door nieghbor Johnny he was a tough good looking kid. The Christian boy across the street Mike a bit on the rough side and Jimmy a little smaller than the 3 of us but full of energy.I was a little timid at times but willing to be a part of the group in every way.We were all blessed with different attributes and that made for times of commaradarie but also volatility.
The kids that I grew up with and the times and the place we lived in was always to one degree or another centered upon bravado. Fighting and fights seeemd to be a way of life for some kids. I often avoided such behavior to a degree that when I look back made me look like a cousin to Houdini.But I loved sports and when your elevan and you had little to do you played sports.
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