Turner 1
Pamela Turner

English 1302-2
Ditching School In the late 70’s my father became ill and was unable to work. As a result, we lost our home in Los Angeles and had to move to a rental home in the neighboring city of Compton. Our neighborhood in Los Angeles was multi cultural. We had a mixture of Spanish, German, and African Americans living in our neighborhood. We were true neighbors in the sense of, all the kids in the neighborhood would go to store for Mrs. Mueller. She was from Germany and was an elderly widow. Back then you could borrow a cup a sugar from your neighbor. We took great care of each other and it was a real community. One of the saddest days of my life was moving from this community. Moving to Compton was a complete culture shock for our family. Don’t get me wrong, there are very nice areas of Compton that the media always fail to highlight. However, where we moved was not one of them. This new neighborhood was a little run down in appearance and it was predominately black. There is nothing wrong with living around my culture but in this neighbor we had the same skin color but not the same values. My first few weeks of attending a new school and attempting to make new friends was horrendous. I quickly gained the nickname “Oreo cookie” among the kids. And was asked very

Turner 2
Frequently, why do I talk like a white girl? I was confused. I didn’t understand what talking like a white girl meant. These kids were strange and mean. I really missed my friends in Los Angeles but I kept that to myself. I knew my Dad and Mom were going through tough times and didn’t need to know how bad school had become for me. I finally met a girl named Maryann. She seemed like a nice girl and she did not make fun of my speech. She would say the kids were just jealous because I was smart. We began to hang out together after school and became close friends. As our friendship grew, I noticed that Maryann was absent from school at least once a week. It was always on random days and I became curious to the reasons behind the absence. I finally mustered the courage to ask her. She said sometimes she likes to take the RTD bus to the shopping district in downtown Los Angeles. I was shocked. Taking the bus downtown! I ask her if that was skipping school? She replied yes, but its fun, she had done it plenty of times, and she has never been caught. My initial thoughts were skipping school is a dumb idea. Especially taking the bus to downtown Los Angeles. She asks if I would like to go next week. My reply was a big, fat no. I thought it was dangerous and could get us in a late of trouble. Maryann did not bring the subject up again for a few more weeks. However, I did notice she was hanging around a girl named Cynthia more at lunch time than with me. When I joined them at the lunch table they were talking about their latest trip downtown. I became concerned that I was losing the one friend that didn’t call me names and was nice to hang around. So against my better judgement I agreed to ditch school the following Tuesday and go downtown. Turner 3 We met at the bus stop at 7:45 am on a bright and sunny morning. Cynthia wasn’t feeling well. So it was just Maryann and me. I have to admit I was a little excited but scared too. It was an hour bus ride and we talked all the way. I had bought money incase I saw an outfit I liked. Finally, the bus made it to our stop. Something told me to stay on the bus and ride it back to school but I did not want to disappoint Maryann. I swallowed my fear and exited the bus with her. I promise you we only walked a few steps down 1st Street when we were approached by two plain clothes detention officers. They showed us their badge and ask where was our parents? I answered my parents were at home. Then came the dreaded questions. They wanted to know if we were skipping school. So much for never getting caught. I answered yes. They placed us in the back of their car and transported us to a youth detention center.
Needless to say, our parents were contacted and had to come retrieve the two school ditchers from detention. My mom was furious. When she walked in that place I could feel the fire of hell burning through her. This was not going to go well for me. Especially because she had to ride a bus for an hour to pick me up. I was supposed to be in school not downtown. Her first questions was what was I thinking? Didn’t I know how dangerous it was for young girls running around town by themselves? I began to cry. When the tears were all gone I explained about my situation at school. The kids called me Oreo cookie. They believed I talked funny and act like a white girl. I only went to keep Maryann as my friend. And yes, I did know it was dangerous but I took that chance to keep a friendship. My said mom she knew the move had been hard for the family but it did not
Turner 4 give me the right to make dangerous decisions. She also said I had enough brothers and sisters to have friends until the end of my days. I didn’t escape the spanking but I did learn a valuable lesson. Life is made of choices. Chose to do what is right no matter the outcome.