Where We Come From: Rosegate

Looks like there's trouble in my old neighborhood in Delaware—the community of Rosegate, located just across the street from Wilmington. I can't say that I'm surprised. The place has always been filled with some good and bad apples.

My mom told me about this crackdown on crime in Rosegate a couple of days ago. The police swept “The Gate,” as we call it, last week. During the crackdown, police went door-to-door looking for criminals, including drug dealers, drug users, pimps, and prostitutes. Looks like they got plenty of what they came for. Law abiding residents were happy about the sting and told reporters so. Neighbors have been up in arms about a homicide that ocurred there last summer.

Drugs have been sold around the area for as long as I can remember, and people from other areas used to always like to come and hang out in our hood for some reason-- like it was some kind of ghetto play park. Both the Philadelphia and Delaware news outlets have picked up this shameful story.

God Bless Rosegate and its colorful residents. My parents live just up the street from there now (after living in Rosegate for 25 years), to a bigger house with a lot more land. Sometimes I worry about them since they still live so close to Rosegate, but I know a higher power is protecting them.

Hey Poochie—Hold ‘em down baby! Don’t worry sister. We’re still fabulous, even though we come from the other side of town. “Cause U-N-I-T-Y is all we need, to get our R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and never G-I-V-E U-P, and keep your H-E-A-D U-P.”

And let’s also not forget that, “where we come from, sometimes, beauty floats around us like clouds …”

The Other Side of Town
Words and music by Curtis Mayfield

I’m from the other side of town, out of bounds
To anybody who don’t live around
I never learned to share or how to care
I never had no teachings about being fair
Depression is part of my mind
The sun never shines on the other side of town
The need here is always for more
There’s nothin’ good in store
On the other side of town

It’s hard to do right in this filthy night
Just plain simple comfort is completely out of sight
My little sister, she hungry for bread to eat
My brother’s hand-me-down shoes is now showin’ his feet
Ghetto blues showed on the news, all isn’t well
But what the hell do they care?
You across the track completely relaxed
You take a warnin’ pact
Don’t you never come back

I ’m from the other side of town
Out of bounds to anybody who don’t live around
I never learned to share or how to care
I never had no teachings about being fair
Depression is part of my mind
The sun never shines
On the other side of town
The need here is always for more
There’s nothin’ good in store
On the other side of town

Oh baby, it’s hard to do right, ya know
On the other side of town
This depression really got a hold of me
On the other side of town