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Show Here, in all its stark reality, is the fi'fi'"' iii.is: .n..i- -' umummu .:....-..- hard-hittin- story of a girl reporter who joined a band g " CS ae- - i" "l"?B",f " by Kitty Hanson 1 ' I I 1 IE (A Mrvjg i a-lif- - U Many teen-age- rs regard the It was late. Up and down sat weakly on the steps. Altogether, the tenement-line- d Jriock, people the elapsed time was about seven talked quietly In darkened doorways 'minutes. Things happen fast when and on stoops. From the candy store - teen gangs are feuding! For nearly two months, I "lived" where I sat on the steps with a dozen laughing, chattering teen- - with members of several city street agers. yellow light arid the wail of gangs, trying to learn what makes rhvthm and blues Doured out over them tick. I got acquainted chiefly by "hang-The- n the steps and into the street two members of a rival teen ing around" the neighborhood. I gang stalked into the block, whipped spent hours at the youth center-- out a gun, and drew a bead on our talking, listening, jiving with the kids who drifted in and out to break the group. They meant to kill. In an instant, the entire block was day's dull routine with a television deserted and deatHy stillTheUghts. -- show Ping-pon- g of the candy store abruptly switched game. al the sat on I off as kids fled into hallways or steps of" hangout until I was dropped behind parked cars. I was their candy-sto- re pretty slow. Slow enough to hear branded, drank gallons of Coke, the click of a gun that wouldn't fire. downed dozens of franks, and handed .,, ; When the "enemy" began to run, out smokes by the carton. I became "Blondie," who always doorways in our block disgorged had .cigarettes. It's hard to bum a s, shouting and givangry ing chase. My. knees wobbled and I cigarette of! a"gal and not talk to her. . grid-met- , teen-ager- frnUy Weekly Magazi. January 15. vpr- - to i , Some youths are not willing to work for their money and turn to robbery instead. police as their natural enemies. hard-worki- ng mm i e mean, yes, I'll write bad things about you "Like what?" The boys had closed in a challenging semicircle. "Like the time after a trip to .the park we stopped along the highway for hot dogs and. Cokes, and when -"we got backon" the bus that - stand was clean! Peanuts potato chips anything that wasn't fastened down, you took!" Grins started slowly around the semicircle. "Like stealing cars. Carrying knives. Stabbing people because you i. it i uu ucii i jx?,Z:JtJzz . " I let them know I was a reporter. think they're trying to push you around. Like nearly clobbering that Some were cynical. Some were worried. Some "knew it all the time." poor bus driver when he didn't want to stop and pick me up the day" we Jimmy didn't like it at all. "You gonna write about gangs and ftad a picnic at the state park!" "Man, he had to pick you up, Kitty. call us hoodlums and say bad things You one of the boys!" about us?"v The girls were looking a bit smug I shrugged. "They'll be true. Some "Like the girls here getting into a good. Some bad. If that's what you At first, the girls greeted me with polite reserve, the boys with open suspicion. They talked me over among themselves. They quizzed me, "You a social worker?" "You a (narcotics) agent?" "You a cop?" "Tt "was ' weeks before they really believed I was not a cop. During those weeks I learned to know them, to like them, to understand (if not code that approve) the mixed-u- p makes teen-ag- e gang activity a source of violence and crime. . -- - 1 |