5/20/2008 - Questionable Corner

Street Corner with the Catch

One summer we invited Russian youth. To be honest,  the Summer Camp sucked: the food was awful, the program was not thought through, but black kids from poor neighborhoods had a ball, while Russian children suffered. They got unresponsive to all our efforts to involve them into boredom. All they wanted was to get out of building because inside was even worse than outside. I didn’t blame them: to be first time in America and sit inside of the stuffy and dusty building would be silly. Russian kids were from wealthy families and the money burned their fingers. Shopping was the most desirable activity on their to-do list.

The local bank employees called me one morning from the bank, “Lydia, are those girls yours?”

“What girls?”

“I am afraid that those girls on the corner are from Russia. They are so different and for our taste, they dressed provocatively, so we first thought they were local prostitutes that we see on our corner every day, but those seem way too young. We do not want to upset you, but this corner doesn’t have a good reputation. We do not want your girls to get hurt.”

I ran outside and I saw my Russian teenage girls standing on the corner of 10^th and Central in their tiny shorts revealing as much of their legs and hips as you would see people doing only in California and Russia. Nobody would even think they those girls could be under age.  “Girls, did I not tell you stay inside? Did I not tell you how dangerous this area is?!!! You can not go out without adults.”

“We just went across the street to buy some groceries! Big deal! This is 10 AM - this is not night! Why do you always try to scare us?! We are from a big city and we can go anywhere safe. Here it is like a village and people are so nice to us.” The girls started waving someone. I looked around and saw a truck driver pooling over where the girls were and a few guys across the street waiting. They waved back and grimmed.

“Oh, yeah! I am sure those guys are very friendly. Go back to the church! Right now! Go, I said! I will explain to you later how friendly they are!”