I grew up in The Bronx. I lived near Kingsbridge Rd and walked the Grand Concourse for many miles over the years. I remember when my mom didn't have cab money, we would walk to church and then back home, which was probably about 22 to 24 blocks one way. I remember that cab fare was $5.00 from my block to 183rd Street and the Grand Concourse, downtown side. Sometimes, depending on a few different things, we walked through St. James Park and other times we walked right up Kingsbridge Rd to the Grand Concourse and hit a straight walk all the way down. After hitting Fordham Rd, which always felt like the midpoint, we were well on our way to Friday church service. This meant that my mom would stay upstairs in the service and I would get to go downstairs to "Teen's Church". I think 7:30 pm on Fridays was something both of us looked forward to, she got to see her church friends, and I got to hang out with mine. And of course, as much as I loved being a part of the Love Gospel Assembly, there was the occasional motivating factor that made going to church a bit more exciting; the cute boys.
I was a normal teenager, complete with all the bells and whistles of drama, roller-coaster emotions and wanting to find and define myself, even if it offended others. I remember the first time a boy from church told me he liked me, it was in a creative way. He used a piece of paper to spell out " I like you" (Frankie). The first boy to ever call my house forgot the code name I gave him and said his name was "Rudolf" instead of Ronnie like I told him to say (Jason). Boys were the center of a lot in those days and I was in and out of love so much you'd wonder if I even knew what true love was. That was until I was just about to turn 16, and Jeff and I began to date. We did a lot of sneaking around at first since we weren't allowed to date in church. He was younger than me and we definitely had people hating on us but that made it more exciting.
