South Side Old School Times
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I really see no commonalities between anything I was involved with as a kid, and the clubs of today. The whole demographic changed; when we scorned people of a darker persuasion back then in the 80s, now it seems to be a staple of club life. When we would end up at parties, and there would be guys from other clubs showing up who were affiliated with the 5, everyone seemed to get along, though there was always that thought in the back of your head something might happen.

I remember cruising around the south side, everywhere from Marquette Park, through Stickney and Garfield Ridge; through Berwyn, Cicero and Summit, sometimes looking for trouble, other times just cruising on a Saturday night looking for chicks. Mixes from 102.7BMX would be blasting from the car, especially when the Hot Mix 5 came on.

I remember going to the teenage dance clubs on Wednesday and Sunday nights; Prime and Tender on 63rd and Harlem, Kicks on 66 on 66th Street, and the Fire Alarm on Ogden in Cicero. Their were club members everywhere, both allies and flakes. It was exciting times.

I remember when pagers were first becoming popular, and if you had one, you were the shit.

I remember stealing hood ornaments, Alpine car radios, and Cobra fuzz busters, and selling them to a gentlemen in Lyons for some much needed cash.

I remember not wearing blue jeans for years: black baggies, black Converse All Stars with the tongue flipped over and T-Ps scrawled across it, spider or ladder-laced, a white hoodie, and slicked back hair . That was the uniform of the times.

I remember selling the carp we caught in the Des Plaines River in Lyons by the water tower to the Blacks for a buck a piece.

I remember a time when you fought with fists, or whatever else you could get your hands on instead of guns. Yes, in the 80s guns were starting to become more the rule that the exception, but it took a little while longer before the negro influence took hold of white youth.

I remember seeing Colors when it came out at the Hillside Theater. Cops were both inside at outside the movies. Club members would just start yelling out their names during the film, kind of like that scene in "Cooley High".

I remember when NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" was released. That shit hit like a storm. Everyone was blasting "F_ck tha Police" on their ghetto blasters. It was something never heard before, and though I wasn't big on rap music, it was kinda cool. Nowadays, kids just take it for granted, gangsta rap, trying to emulate and propagate it.

I miss those times

Just feeling nostalgic today. :)