Street Fear

Huntington Terrace in Newark was not your bare urban street.   Both sides were lined with huge trees...so much so that we had a complete canopy over the street.   They must have been chestnuts (before the blight) because we had lots of brutal fights throwing chestnuts at each other.   I also liked to just hold them and feel how smooth they were.

One day, probably aged 5 or 6, I made a big careless mistake and somehow ran out into the street in front of a moving car.   I almost got hit......I think.   Anyway this act filled me with terrible guilt and fear.  I somehow got the belief that I was in big trouble, and that in fact that the police would now come for me for my crime.   I rushed up to our second floor apartment and dove into the bed, pulled up all the covers and hid in terror.   I don't think my parents knew where I was, so they're not part of the story.   Anyway, it felt like I lay in bed for hours.   I don't really remember the rest.   I guess at some point I just got up.   I do know I didn't go to jail.  I still remember, so you can get an idea how scared I was.