Ugene Magic
EVIL LAUGH
If you were walking up Federal, Toula's was on the right, like 2-3 buildings up.
I grew up in the 90s when gang violence really started to surge there. It was pretty bad, but you didn't really let it control your life. When we went down to play hockey on Lake Elizabeth we never wore red (Bloods) or black (OGs) as a sign of respect for the Crips. They were always lurking around the Commons where the lake was.
We respected them and they left us alone and would talk to us about hockey and whatever.
We had a night rule also. If there was like 4-5 of us we tried to be out of there before the lights came on. If there was like 10-20 of us, we would just keep playing.
They had those vintage era lights from old Allegheny City that added to the aesthetics. It was so beautiful at night with the snow and such, always hated leaving if it was a small group of us, but we were street smart kids and knew being cool with some Crips didn't mean we were totally safe.
First: Just totally sadden Franco didn't make it to this game that's honoring his legacy of the IR 50 years in the making. R.I.P. Franco..... Did not know he lived in the Mexican War Streets.
Now, Federal street had itself its own police station across from the beer distributor. That didn't curb a thing, and in fact, that station closed. There were just areas that even the police did not want to be. Never once got messed with there, (day or night) did some work on houses up the hill, in fact one of them vacant (7 Carrie street) while we were working on it got vandalized having all the copper lines ripped out. Going up to Perry Hill Top on many occasions that way. One of my wife's family member lived in the back house and it was awkward having them complain about stuff my friend who owns many houses around about, the trees growing over their property and trying to be the middle man between it all and keeping the peace.
Glad to hear you had no real troubles growing up in those parts. You definitely had to have street smarts to navigate the area.
