In 1980, before their boys were born, Kathy and Curtis House took a calculated risk: rather than move to the suburbs, they chose to become “urban pioneers.” On Oakwood Boulevard, hub of a once prosperous black community, they found and totally rebuilt their brick-and-limestone home. They organize older residents of Oakland into an extended family network: when Curtis feels the itch to visit the mall, a retired neighbor takes him there. But the projects, and the violence they harbor, are never out of sight. The boys have witnessed muggings and gang fights. A few months ago Curtis was walking to the school bus when a gang from the projects started shooting. “I just ran to my bus and sat real low in my seat,” he says. To their father, it’s all a part of growing up. “If you shelter your child too much, it is very difficult to experience real-life tragedies firsthand.” he says. “if my son sees the violence, sees the problems, he learns to cope.”
But as adolescence approaches, Curtis feels confined living in a community where even a walk home alone from the library is a rare and risky venture. “It bothers me a lot that I get cooped up in the house,” he admits. “I know it’s for my best interest, but sometimes I wish I could go by myself wherever I wanted to.” He and Chad even talk about the need to carry guns for self-defense once they enter high school. “I think that you do need a gun sometimes because gangbangers do have their guns and one day you may have to have one to protect yourself.”
That kind of talk chills their parents. “We are thinking about moving for the kids’ sakes,” their mother says. Oakwood Boulevard may be a secure haven, but there is no moat. “You pray and you take precautions,” says Kathy House. But what do you do, she wonders, when boys can no longer be treated as children?
