Know the Youth on Your Block

I bought a book at the museum called Manassas – The Times They Were a Changin’ by members of the Osbourn Senior High School, Class of ’69.  The collaborative memoir captures “a small part of one generation in Manassas,” 1950-1969. 

I enjoyed reading about city neighborhoods through the eyes of its former children.  Fishing at Sumner Lake when it was the Smith family's farm.  Walking to Rohr's in Old Town to buy candy and check out the latest model kit and Testors paint.  Listening to a record over and over to get the music down so they could play in it in bands (check out a young Hal Parrish as a member of the “Vibrations” on page 131).

These days you can Yahoo! the address of your childhood home and see it in rather shocking detail.  That’s what my sister did.  She sent me a link to our family home in Owatonna, Minnesota.  It looks the same as it did in the mid '60s,  except for 50 years of tree growth. 

The photo triggered my own memories:  hearing the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B for the first time on a transistor radio.  Reading 12 cent Mighty Mouse comic books.  Falling off my bicycle and ripping a gash in my knee.  Jimmy Fireball from across the street carried me to his car, and drove my mother and I to the clinic.  The doctor gave me nine stitches. 

I guess after 30 years of living here in Manassas, I’m like those trees, rooted.  Maybe that’s why I like volunteering in the community so much.  I want the children of today to have good -- and safe -- memories of their homes and their neighborhoods, like we did.

So #7 of the "12 Ways to Improve Your Neighborhood" by Campbell DeLong Resources is:  Meet the youth who live on your block and greet them by name.  Couldn't hurt.  And it might just keep them safe.  Look what it did for the Class of '69.