I was raised in stereotypical NYC drug infested neighborhoods. When ‘crack’ cocaine came on the scene I was fully aware of it and the damaging results it had on familes. I recall going ‘door to door’ and seeing ‘crack’ vials and their red tops spread on the hallway floors, staircases, elevator, and in front of the project buildings. T his was the time when ‘crack’ took over those ‘hoods’ and brought out the worst in human behavior. Addicts stealing, robbing, terrorizing folks and people that loved them in unprecedented ways. In fact, many of the J-Dub teenage and adult children got caught up in the epidemic. As a result many J-Dub parents had to raised the children of these ‘crack’ fiends b/c the ‘crack’ made them incapable of raising their own children. This caused a sharp decline in their ‘service activity’ and interfered with many ‘pioneers’ not getting their ‘time in’. It got so bad that the CO mentioned, in some of his ‘local needs’ parts at the K-Hall and Circuit Assemblies, that J-Dub’s had to be ‘careful’ about raising their grandchild (even niece or nephews) b/c it had a negative effect on their ‘service activity’. As time went on it became a proverbial saying - “Remember what the CO said about raising these grandchildren, etc…” As a result, some J-Dub grandparents stop doing all they could for their grandchildren and decided to put the ‘kingdom first’. Granted, some J-Dub grandparent ignore those man-made suggestions and took good care of their grandchildren, some even taking these babies out in ‘field service’ with them – calling them ‘pioneer’ babies. Just wondering, does anyone else remember this trend during that time period?
Thxs - Larry