Children of the Streets Book

I thought the book was very exaggerated and the stories pretty redundant. I only liked a couple of the stories such as "no Way Out" and No Game For Children". I was born in 1947 and grew up in a very rough housing project in South Philly. I saw a lot of fights and got in a few myself although I tried to avoid them whenever possible as I wasn't that good at it. In South Philly the gangs were identified by the corner they mainly hung out at like "30th & Tasker". Some corners had big reps for being tough and you stayed away from them. There were also the young Italian Mafia wannabees who hung out around 9th Street. I was a teenager in the early 60's and rarely saw or heard about the type of rumbles and extreme violence Ellison portrays. Of course things may have been a lot different in NY 10 years earlier but I still think he exaggerates the amount and severity of JD violence using a lot of artistic license. My milder group of teenagers hung out at at "29th & Morris", a block south and a block east of the very tough ""30th & Tasker" gang. We knew a lot of them and vice versa and knowing we were no threat they didn't bother us most of the time. I did get "jumped" and beaten up twice, once by "30th street" and once by "the Hill" the gang that dominated the Tasker housing project I lived in. Both times I was told they didn't recognize us as being from the project and one guy actually apologized for a case of mistaken identity. In high school the big weapon was thick heavy belts with big belt buckles that were used more than knives in gang fights. I wore one to be "cool" but never used it.