I was raised in Alabama from 4th - the middle of 10th grade. When I came up here, it was a complete culture shock. My Southern accent was VERY heavy! After being in Maryland for a while, I now speak like a Marylander except when I get mad. Then my Southern accent comes out!

I also quickly pick up the Southern accent when I have a conversation with someone from the South. I have one friend my age that I still talk to every few months who still lives in Alabama, and my friend who lives in Tennessee who has the Southern accent. Within a couple of sentences on the phone with them, I go straight to my Southern accent and slang. Like they say, you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl!

I know where Harbor Hospital is. I've driven past it a few times. I was born in St. Agnes Hospital. My older sister lived in the city for years. I don't know which part thought. I don't 'do' the city! I might have visited her a whole 5 times if that throughout the whole time she lived there! I love the Aquarium and the Zoo, but I really don't go that often simply out of fear of the city! My mother had cancer years ago and went to Mercy Hospital every month for Chemotherapy. At the end of her life, she was in the hospital for a month straight and died in the hospital. So I did drive there to see my mother in the hospital. But I was scared the whole way in and out of the city.

I get lost in the city like crazy! As nervous as I am being there, every time I get lost, I know I can ask someone driving or walking by and everyone has been very nice in helping me with directions.

My sister had a lot of problems raising her kids in the city. She's a single mother and the only place she could afford was the city. She has 4 kids and two of them got really into the drug scene. Her other two didn't get involved in drugs like they did. My one nephew was selling drugs at 12 years old and started making babies in cars by the time he was 15 or so. We still don't know how many kids he has! He's been in and out of jail most of his life. My niece got so messed up with drug dealers that she and another girl were actually kidnapped by them. My sister and her older son had to save her from some guy who had her and another girl held up in a drug house and was forcing them to be sex slaves to the guys that came to the house. There's a lot more that my niece and nephew have done and been through because of living in that life style.

Yeah, I don't do the city! I heard enough about the city from my sister living there.

My ex husband knows Nick Vaccaro and got my older daughter a job at Vaccaro's in the city a few years ago when she was around 17 years old. I threw a fit about her working in the city, but she kept telling me she'd be fine. One day, she was walking to her car to work and some young kid pulled a knife on her. She handled it really well and offered to buy him some food at Vaccaro's if he'd calm down. He calmed down and went to Vaccaro's with her and she bought him some food. I still don't know how to take that one! I made her quit working in the city the next day.

Because of the things I know about living in the city from my sister, I am determined not to have to live there. Middle River is too rough for me. I definitely don't want to have to move to the city. I'm determined to fix my finances and move to a better area.

I mean, I can handle myself, I don't want to sound like some pathetic waif, but I am getting too old to have to deal with the violence here. I want the nicey nice area where in the news, you hear of things like the group of ladies in the community center have planted flowers along the roadside instead of a man was shot and killed today while being held up at gunpoint in the grocery store parking lot. Yeah, I'm ready for a Leave It To Beaver type neighborhood.

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