User:Bobbyboot/sandbox

'''CAREY CREW

Welcome to the story of a group of young kids who grew up to be old kids.

It all started in a small neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia PA. During the mid 1960’s housing developments began popping up throughout the far northeast section of Philadelphia. One small community contained row homes situated on Carey Road, Carey Place, Carey Plaza and Carey Terrace. It was on these streets that a group of young kids formed a friendship that has lasted to this day. The current crew consists of Billy, Tommy, Jimbo, King Edward and Baboots (more on this nickname later). As of today we have continued our friendship and it grows stronger. Oddly it grew stronger during the COVID-19 pandemic but more on that later.

'''The Origins of the Crew

'''There has been much back and forth as to the beginning of the Carey Crew so I will do my best to remember the origins. The neighborhood construction began in the mid 1960’s and we believe Eddie’s family was the first to arrive in 1966. Next was Bobby’s family in 1966 or 1967. Jimmy was next in 1968 followed by Tommy and Billy’s family. We have debated as to what year the Crew was officially established so we settled on 1968. That year Jimmy’s family arrived two doors from Bobby’s house and they soon became best buddies. As time rolled on the other guys showed up and as they say…the rest is history!

The Main Strip

Most of the activity in our neighborhood took place in the center of Carey Road right above Carey Plaza. This is where the street was a straight road with no curve. This made it ideal for the location for all our sports. Depending on the time of year you would see a stickball, touch football or street hockey game going on from sunrise to sunset 365 days a year. On occasion you might even see a game of tackle football taking place on the hard tar-paved road. You see as young kids it made perfect sense to us that if there were a few inches of snow on the ground then that was enough cushion to play tackle. And by a few inches I mean 1-2! Hey we were young and stupid!!

Our Parents

I can easily say that growing up when we did is much different than today. Having such a small neighborhood with many houses meant there were many families with many kids. And of course our parents were a big part of our childhood. The best way to describe it is this way…it was like we each had multiple parents looking out for us. If we were hanging at Eddie’s house his Mom would make sure everything was alright. And if Eddie was at my house the same could be said of my Mom. It was a great way to grow up…but of course if you thought you were getting away with something because your parents weren’t around think again! They had each other’s backs and made sure we towed the line. I’ll stack up our generation against any other and say we had it the best! And that I included our parents.



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