Streetlight Alley Stroll

It's a warm summer night about 12:30AM the streets lit by the yellow glow of the street lights. A group of teens (16 - 18 years) walk through the alleys, 7-11 big gulps in hand. Someone is willing to have dead arms carrying the radio providing the background music as they walk. Most often then not it's reggae playing interjected occasionally by a rap song someone had to hear. No set destination, no plans just being with each other is enough tonight. 

Most nights there is something going down a house party, an invitation to meet at the point/the dead end, or some club was popping which usually meant some were missing. This night though everyone is there. Yes there were some who had to sneak out, some who had no curfew, others who had a final they should have been studying for, while others were enjoying their freedom one last time.  

These streets and alleys they walked were the ones not featured in any home and garden magazine or news article unless you counted the 9 o'clock news for a drive by or other drug related clip. To these kids however it is home, the same streets they learned to ride bikes on, walked to school on, played hide and seek on, the streets they grew up on. 

Conversation turns to nights past. Stories of past encounters with the wrong people and the trouble that came with it. Encounters with the right person and the troubled that came with that. Stories of those who were no longer here and those who they wished were not here anymore. 

Eventually the street lights start going out replaced by the glow of the impending sunrise. The group starts to dwindle as the group moves from one of their homes to the next leaving each stop one man down. There was no drama tonight no fights, no talk of shootings, no one on the run needed to hide that night. Any night like that was a good night. 

Now years later those who walked in the glow of the streetlights are grown. Some home owners, others college graduates, some with kids, others married. There are some doing time, some hustling hard to make it, while others have gone on to a better place. Not many live on those streets anymore, but if asked each has fond memories of their streetlight alley strolls.