Chapter 3

In Chapter three of the book, MacDonald explains how he and his brothers and sisters had to face initiations upon their arrival at Old Colony. They had to start to make a name for themselves against other tough Southie kids and stand their ground. It’s amazing to me to see that these kids were so loyal to the areas they lived in. There was Old Colony, The Point, D Street, and they all took pride in where they lived and in keeping their own crowds together. 

The kids that MacDonald grew up with and around all remind me of the word “punk” and it seems to be the defining word for most of them. It’s like they were looking for trouble all the time, and weren’t even scared of the police. The coolest thing about this book though, is that MacDonald makes you really want to like these people. They had to face daily struggles that a lot of us readers have never even seen or thought of having to endure, and so you can kind of see where this Southie attitude comes from and why they were so desperate to stick together. It’s like those kids that you let cross the road and they walk wicked slow and you get so aggravated because they seem like little entitled assholes, that is exactly what these kids are but this book makes it okay! He even says at one point “It seemed as if we were all hoping for some action, all the time” – It’s like they couldn’t get enough of the trouble that was all around them, and when there was no chaos going on they had to start some.

Another thing I noticed is that everyone is pretty much grouped by their nationality. His sisters boyfriend is “Jimmy the Greek” he is considered a “white nigger” or a “project rat” then there are “niggers” and then there are just regular black people that  lived in a certain spot for years and so they weren’t considered “niggers” – It is absolutely insane how racist these people all were against each other.

BUT my favorite part of this whole chapter is when he talks about how none of the rules that he learns in Southie work anywhere else. “All the rules we were learning didn’t make any sense anywhere else. Not the rules about heat and light, not the rules about what to wear, not the rules about money.” – It’s like they had their own little world and it basically was a different culture - But at the time what he didn’t understand was that in other places, their rules wouldn’t work in Southie either. It was all relative. 

I really wasn’t sure how I felt about this book in the beginning, but now I can’t put it down.