I remember my cousin from California coming to visit us when I was just a kid - maybe 9 years old .
He is from California right so I don't have to do much explaining - he decides he wants to see the area we live in , drives around and gets hit with chest pains, and pulls into some random farmers driveway. Now the area he is in is ok, but the hospital they bring him to is in the worst town in the area. You just don't go there after dark, and he's calling my dad to ask him to come get him in the hospital at 9pm at night. Its like 90 minutes away.
So my old man grabs his revolver and a box of shells, and god knows why but he loads me up in the car we go to get my cousin. As we roll into this town, dad lays the revolver on his lap and I know this is not normal. Then I understand why. I look out the window and I see a gang of young black men,in a circle, beating the schit out of someone. I want to say a white guy but honestly I couldn't see very well thru mass of people , it was 40+ years ago and I'm not sure any white people actually lived in that area, but it was at least 7 guys circling him. I remember my old man telling me not to look but he might as well had told me not to breathe. I was going to look.
Before we made it to the hospital, we saw the same scene again, a gang of young black males chasing someone. Then when we were at the hospital waiting, they brought in another person who was beat up on the street, with an eye hanging out.
This wasn't a riot, this was just a late Saturday night in this schithole town.
Looking back, a revolver was all he had, but today, I don't think I would think that was enough firepower.
We were never bothered but we didn't stop to ask directions either.
Last edited by KFWA; 06/25/20.
