Pizza, Ketchup and Brick Roads

Ever since I could remember I've loved brick roads. I've had the brick road fascination since I was a little girl visiting the museum. I don't remember quite well what exhibit I saw, it had to have been 20's or 30's based. I remember jumping on one of the old school rides you see in old gangster flicks. my child hood memories are vague. I managed to re-collect those things that interest me. Some things I like but can't remember how I got to liking. There's a story behind everything but there are times where things don't seem to have any kind of attachment. Its like ketchup and pizza. I mean not everyone likes it but how did it come to be? I just so happen to like that crap? I started liking it at some point. I remember walking through the barrio down the alleys to catch the little sights of brick roads left in the city. For a young lady to walk home through alley ways was not the smartest thing to do in the mid-nineties. Even now it's dangerous. As kids we don't realize the danger in things but then again I guess it all has to do with the way we grew up. I was scared when I heard the loud pops of bullets from a chamber or pistol. In the neighborhood where I grew up they echo pretty loud. There were only a few instances where as a kid I had to dodge bullets while playing soccer, jumping rope or simply just hanging out on the front steps of the house. How can you be scared of anything in the world if the scariest things are as close as your doorstep? I was never really scared of anything and have always loved adventure. My inner-city kid adventures weren't the smartest I guess. I'ts funny how the brain works I have all these thoughts and memories when something as simple as brick roads comes to mind. As I got older I discovered a bigger world outside the Little Village entrapment that can sometimes leave a first generation child clueless of what the world really is. I started riding trains and buses. Started getting home extremely late just because I was in the safer parts of town or running away to a different town, in bright lit areas. Society leads us to think that because there is a lot of light, we are safer. That the police lights gleaming from the top of the cameras assure us how safe we really are? A little less than half of the incidents I've seen as close as two feet away from those cameras are enough to put those idiots with the street camera idea to shame. Bring back the brick streets Chicago.