I'm not talking about Chips... I'm talking about gangs

Last night Alex and I watched a documentary called Gangland, about you guessed it, Gangs (oh and by the way, if you didn't "guess it" feel free to pretend you did). So anyways, although this documentary was disturbing and intense, it surprisingly reminded me of 3rd grade. Now before you get any cooky thoughts like "I had no idea you were in a gang in 3rd grade" or that I had a "disturbing and intense year of 3rd grade" I would like to let everyone know I had a delightful and gang free 3rd grade. That said let's make the connection, shall we? Ok so in 3rd grade I was briefly friends with a girl named Jennifer Crabtree.

One day Jennifer came over to my house after school. There we were sitting on the front porch, when Jennifer gave me my first tutorial on gangs. To make this story resinate in your mind, you will need a visual of who Jennifer was. Now Jennifer had that dark red/ brown hair, and freckles like they exploded on her face (do you know what I mean? It was if someone sprayed her in the face with a freckle hose...too close), she was on the plump side, and typically wore sweatshirts with bedazzled decals. Are you with us on the front porch? Great. There we were, when Jennifer turns to me and asks me if I know about "the Bloods, and the Crips?"Apparently her dad worked in a correction facility for teen boys, he was her source of all the information she was to pass on to me (in retrospect, either her dad wasn't her source, her dad was a liar, or her dad some how also happened to be 8 years old).

"Bloods, and the Crips, you mean like poker chips, or potato chips?" I asked. Can you believe I had no idea? Anyways after about 5 minutes I learned everything that I needed to know about the extremely dangerous gangs.

Jennifer, appliqué sweatshirt, freckles and all, tells me the truth about the bloods and the crips. "Emily, I'm not talking about chips, I'm talking about gangs. You see my dad told me, anyone who wears red, is a Blood, and anyone who wears blue is a Crip. If you look a person wearing red, or blue in the eye (it doesn't even have to be the wrong way, because every way is wrong) they will indeed find out where you live... You know what they do next?"

"What?" I say (my voice cracking with fear).

"What happens next, is the bloods, tell all the bloods, and all the crips tell all the crips. " She starts.

"(gulp)ALL the Bloods?" I interrupt.

"Yes, ALL the Bloods in whole world. The bloods go through your front door, and the crips go through the back, and they have a gang fight in your house...It happens all the time in LA."

I promised myself right then and there, while I sat with old freckled faced Crabtree, I would never allow this to happen in my house. If looking a person wearing red or blue in the eyes, meant risking mine and my families lives, let alone a gang fight in my house, I new I needed to take Jennifer's advice to heart. Fortunately there were no gang fights in my house in 3rd grade, or in my life. I guess I should be thanking Jennifer Crabtree for her words of wisdom... not only did she save me, she saved the whole town... now if only she could do an intervention with the city of LA!