A Walk on the Rough Side: A Walk Through the Pittsburgh Northside

© 2008 Charles W. Sharp, Jr.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 6/24/2008

ISBN: 978-1-4343-9638-9 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4343-9637-2 (sc)

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 1

This story begins on the streets of the north side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The lives are those of a poor family, who have been trying for many years to get the money to be able to buy their own home and get out of the ghetto.

John is the son of Mary and Henry Jacobs, who live in a small two-bedroom apartment in the projects. He is 16 years old and a good student at Central High School, which is only a short three blocks from his apartment building.

He enjoys reading and listening to rap music. Some would probably call John a nerd if he had been raised back in the seventies and eighties.

John stands at five feet nine inches tall, and weighs a good one hundred eighty pounds. He is not too much into playing sports, but really enjoys watching football, basketball, and professional wrestling.

At one time at the age of nine he wanted to be a martial arts expert, and his father enrolled him in classes for two years until times got hard, and he could not afford the tuition, and classes any longer. In those two years, John had learned enough to earn a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do karate.

His mother at this time was very proud of John, and always showed his trophies to her friends and guests when they came to their home. She was a very big fan of Bruce Lee in her middle school days.

John also enjoyed playing the saxophone, which was his favorite past time. He played in the varsity marching band at school, and belonged to a community band in his neighborhood.

John had his eye on a girl at school that was in his Spanish class, but he did not have a steady girlfriend, even though there were several girls who had attempted to talk to him. He could only see Beverly Jones in his future, and would not be satisfied until he was able to take her out.

Beverly’s father was the pastor at John’s family church, St James AME, and he liked John very much. John had practically been raised up with Beverly, and she never knew the way John cared for her.

He would see her in church every Sunday, and made sure that he got to Sunday school early so he could claim his seat next to her.

Beverly is also a very good student, and has plans to be a lawyer when she gets through school. Often she and John would meet in the public library to help each other with homework and work on their Spanish speaking together.

Beverly was a small girl, standing about five feet two inches tall, with a small waistline, and those Coke bottle hips. She weighed about one hundred twelve pounds soaking wet. Her breasts were small, but very shapely. She has shoulder length auburn hair, which she gets from her grandmother who was part Black Foot Indian. She is the type of girl that awakens your inner desires.

John’s mother Mary is a short woman about five foot two inches tall, with a beautiful shape, and long black hair that comes down to her shoulders. She was also born, and raised in the same area of town, to parents who migrated north from Tennessee when she was only a baby.

Her father worked all his life in a steel mill, which supported most families in that area. Mary was raised to be a Christian, and taught to put God in her life, and everything that she did. Her mother was a housewife and good mother to her children, which was a family of three boys, and two girls. Her husband did not want her to work, and made sure that there was always food on the table, and that the bills were paid on time.

Henry, John’s father was a truck driver, and was not at home most of the time. He was a tall man of slender build, but muscular in size. He had played football during his high school years, and went on to college on a football scholarship.

He had completed two years of college when the news came about his father becoming ill, and no longer being able to care for the family. Henry left college and came home to pick up the pieces for his father, who owned and operated his own tractor-trailer.

When school was out for the summer vacation, Henry would ride with his father making pick-ups and deliveries from coast to coast. Henry enjoyed these trips because that gave him the opportunity to see things across the country that not too many people, have the opportunity to see. And spending time with his dad was another plus.

After his father got sick, he came back home from school, and got his tractor trailer license, and picked up where his father left off. His major in college was business administration as he intended on taking over his fathers business and building it up when he graduated. He still had plans on continuing his education and building the business, but he was not able to do that because he had to provide for not only his mother, but also his wife of only a few months.

Henry had gotten married to Mary at the end of his freshman year in college. They got married because Mary had gotten pregnant, and during those times when you got a girl pregnant, you married her.

Most of his business came from hauling steel from the plant in his hometown, to various customers throughout the country. The steel mill produced steel coils and shipped them either by tractor-trailer or train to its customers.

Henry was saving money trying to get enough to make a down payment on a home in the suburbs. He did not like the idea of his family living in the projects, but with business, as it was he could not afford either rent elsewhere or a mortgage payment to get a house.

His mother still lived with them in their apartment because she could not afford the mortgage payments on the house after her husband died. Henry loved his mother very much, and being the oldest of the five children, he immediately assumed the responsibilities of taking care of her.

One of his brothers, James had gone to Vietnam in the middle sixties, and came home in such bad shape that he was hospitalized for two years at the VA hospital for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) this was a result of seeing and being involved in combat operations in Vietnam.

He had been with the 3rd Marine Division, stationed at Da Nang when it was over run by the Viet Cong in January of 1968.

Henry would have been drafted along with his brother if he had not gone to college when he did. His brother, James had been accepted to college, but he decided he wanted to go to work, and make some money instead of going to school.

He was drafted in May of 1967, and immediately after completing his infantry training was shipped off to Vietnam in November 1967. He was not physically wounded in Vietnam, but to some soldiers and Marines the things that they saw and heard put them in the state of PTSD.

Some days he’d be okay, and then for no reason at all he would have flashbacks and was not responsible for his actions during these times. He was not violent, or a danger to anyone except himself during the flashbacks. He went regularly to counseling for this problem and was receiving disability payments from the VA monthly. He lived alone in a small apartment not far from Henry’s home.

The younger brother David was a street-wise drug addict who Henry did not allow around his family, or home.

David had been a good student in high school, a very well liked young man by everyone that knew him during those years. He was a small guy about five feet seven inches tall, with a wiry frame. He had also gone on to college after high school on an academic scholarship, but ran into some people in college who turned him on to cocaine and crack. He had always wanted to be a musician, and was majoring in music in college. In high school he played guitar, and drums in the band, and concert bands. His music teacher had talked him into going to college and assisted him in getting the scholarship to college.

After David started getting turned out on to drugs his grades started falling, and he lost the scholarship that he had been given. Not being able to afford tuition, room and board at school on his own, he dropped out after three semesters.

This was a big disappointment to Henry because he had hopped that his brother David could have been the first in the family with a college degree.

When David came back home from school he stayed with Henry until signs of his drug use started showing up in Henry’s home. Aluminum foil with residue of cocaine still left inside, and different small sniffing spoons were found in the bedroom that he shared with John.

With the house being as small as it was, and Henry not being at home all the time, Henry decided to put David out rather than expose his son to this type of behavior. David just floated from one friend’s home, to another around the town.

He would only work day jobs, making only enough money to support his habit. After a lot of people started complaining about things missing from their homes after David finished a job for them, the agency started sending him only on jobs that were outside. He would work doing gardening, painting, doing yard work, and as a helper on construction sites. He moved from house to house between his friends, because everyone knew he was not going to contribute anything towards the rent, or utilities.

David was also arrested a number of times for panhandling and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was never caught with any drugs on his person because he was never able to buy enough at any time to have some left over after using one time.

Henry’s favorite among his brothers and sisters was his younger sister Rebecca. She had been able to graduate from high school with honors and attend the local community college, where she received a degree in accounting.

She was the first in the family to graduate from a college or university. During her four years of college she met her husband who also graduated with a degree in electrical engineering.

Paul Williams and his father had a family business that had been passed down through five generations. They installed electrical fixtures and did wiring for construction sites, and did sub-contracting work for industrial plants in the three-state area.

Becky and Paul graduated together, and got married two months after graduation. They purchased a house just outside of town with a gift of their down payment coming from Paul’s grandfather who had retired from the business and left it to his son, Paul’s father.

Becky had a very good head on her shoulders and worked with an accounting firm in the downtown area. She was interested in getting her CPA certification and opening her own firm. The law requires that you either have two years of experience with a CPA certified firm, or take the exam immediately after college to obtain your certification as a CPA (Certified Public Accountant).

Because of the wedding plans after college, she put taking the exam off right after school. She had also hoped to gain some experience while working for the two years that was required.

Becky was a vivacious Chocolate Brown, sexy woman. Any man coming into contact with her would automatically have to take a second look. She was beautiful and smart, but she did not exhibit any conceit.

She had been a high school and college cheerleader, and had at one time aspirations of becoming an Olympic gymnast.

There