Counting my blessings, Recalling some memories

I live in a pretty diverse area in Appalachia. It is a lot better than the neighborhood I grew up in; as I said in a previous blog post, I grew up in an a gay-majority neighborhood in which I was openly straight. I still have emotional scars from the way that people would treat me, especially when the popular jocks would fondle me and harass me. One day I thought I was going to walk home after school, and John, the lead quarterback from the football team grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me into the boy's locker room. He punched me in the face several times, and this broke the glasses that I was wearing. Then some other football players came in and they gang raped me. I won't forget his gritty demeanor and his horrible body odor which reminded me of rotting fish. He had red hair and freckles, he was able to get any guy he wanted.

This was probably one of the only all gay neighborhoods in Appalachia, since its a pretty conservative part of the USA. I'm glad that is in the distant past. I am happy with my life now, and its a blessing that I got out of that community shortly after I turned 18.

I live in an all white, low class neighborhood. The crime rate is high, and meth usage is too common where I live. I love my new job as a full time babysitter, and children are my favorite hobby. Halloween is my favorite holiday. This recent Halloween is the 10 year anniversary of a heinous crime which took place. There was a black family who went trick or treating right on my street. They must have taken a wrong turn or were on drugs to make such a horrible decision. I noticed them trick or treating and I shared this information in a conversation with Butch, the butcher at our local grocer. Butch happens to have burn marks on about 50% of his body because of an accident he had as a child. Within minutes after I was talking to Butch, I went into the back of the parking lot to have a smoke before heading home with my groceries. I heard the sound of something electric, it sounded like a bus at first. I thought nothing of it until I started to hear screams. I could tell by the sound of the terrified voices that it was the black family screaming at the top of their lungs.

I couldn't think of anything I could do to save this black family which I knew was probably being mangled into pieces. I tried to listen closely to which direction it was coming from, as I was having my smoke. The screaming was over with in a minute, and so I headed home with my groceries as I normally did. I couldn't stop thinking about the murder of a family as I was eating my porterhouse steak, it was such a bizarre thing to occur even for a rough neighborhood.

At the time I did volunteer work for the police station to sweep the sidewalks, clean the bathrooms, make coffee, etc. I went into the police station for my volunteer work as I normally did on Sunday mornings. Ron, the police chief and myself have been good friends for about 20 years. He is a transvestite, and he wears makeup and women's clothes even when he is on the job. Other than his cross dressing, he is quite masculine and he has a deep voice. He lifts weights regularly and has a meat and potatoes diet. We both have a lot of empathy when it comes to gender stuff since I myself am transgendered. I walked into Ron's office and he was looking at a little mirror as he was putting on his lipstick. We both had nice, friendly smiles on our faces.

Me: "I heard the heinous crime happen last night, but I didn't know what to do about it. I couldn't tell which direction it was coming from."

Ron: "Oh, don't worry Terry. It happens. I don't think there is enough evidence to convict the perpetrator anyways. All I know is it was some wacko with a chainsaw who did this. Its a shame that family was destined to die just because they were black."

Me: "Yeah, he's probably off to a different part of the country now. Its a nice, sunny day out is it not. This was a cool Halloween, people had neat costumes."

Ron: "I liked the ghost costumes the most. People around here still use good old bed sheets for that. Butch would like to have us over at his place tonight. He has a really tasty set of chops for us to munch on as we watch football."

Me: "Excellent...."

My mouth was watering as I thought about the delicious meal I had that same night. It was the best meal I ever had. The slabs of meat were raw, and they were so good that I didn't remember anything about the football game. Butch didn't even tell us what kind of beast it came from. That's not important now, is it? As long as it tastes good.