Newark's Armadillo

By Arlene J Ramsey

This book is a true story about a little girl who has over come every negative obstacle which have been thrown her way. From being sexually molested / sodomized, to constantly beingbeaten up and picked on by an uncle 8 years her senior. And from dealing with life at home tolife at school.Now, as an adult thewoman who speak and relate to people fromthe hurt heart of a child is finding it hard to deal with people and is unable to have relationships with men. Also,the trials and tribulations of everyday life hasn't made things easy for her to cope which caused her to hit rock bottom and struggle to find herself and realize who she is as a person and what will be or is her purpose in life.

This book can change lives!

This book is a true story about a little girl who has over come every negative obstacle which have been thrown her way. From being sexually molested / sodomized, to constantly beingbeaten up and picked on by an uncle 8 years her senior. And from dealing with life at home tolife at school.Now, as an adult thewoman who speak and relate to people fromthe hurt heart of a child is finding it hard to deal with people and is unable to have relationships with men. Also,the trials and tribulations of everyday life haven't made things easy for her to cope which caused her to hit rock bottom and struggle to find herself and realize who she is as a person and what will be or is her purpose in life.

This book can change lives!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 2, 2007
• ISBN: 9781463463854

Arlene J Ramsey

Hello, my name is Arlene J Ramsey Born December 13th, 1976 in Newark, New Jersey.  This is my first novel which is a true story about my life.

Book preview

Newark’s Armadillo

by

Arlene J. Ramsey

missing image file

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

500 Avebury Boulevard

Central Milton Keynes, MK9 2BE

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

© 2010 Arlene J. Ramsey. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 8/20/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1376-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4343-6378-7 (hc)

ISBN: 9781463463854 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007906024

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

This book is dedicated to the children who are growing up in broken, dysfunctional homes with no love and affection. The children who are being told that they will never amount to anything or will never be anything. The children who are feeling hopeless and feeling like they can’t go on. I want you to know that Jesus loves you, and you can do anything your heart desires. Please dream big, finish school, be respectful to yourself and others, and never let anyone get you down. Continue to strive, and God will make a way for you. Through your trials, struggles, and pain, the Lord will make sure you don’t feel the intensity. He’ll find a way to keep you sedated, because he’s the footprints in your walk of life. It is he who knows your ending, so let no one who destroyed or is trying to destroy your past, destroy your future. Those are the words from my pastor, Ron Christian, from Christian Love Baptist Church.

Love,

Arlene J. Ramsey

Acknowledgments

I would like to give a special thanks God for making me who I am which allowed me to come out of this mess untarnished. To Lourdes Luzuriaga, Lydia Rivas, and Kim Petersen for all of the great words of encouragement. Talking to them let me know that there are some people who really take the time to know someone and not follow what everyone else think. I thank you guys for taking the time to know me, Arlene J Ramsey. Thanks to my grandmother for the morals that she has instilled in me, teaching me how to cook and clean, and how to be respectful. despite everything that has happened I refuse to discredit her of the good things she has done in my life. Thanks to Christina Lindsey for always being there for me even with a place to stay for a few days when I needed it. And last be not least, thanks to Shaylia Rawls for being a friend.

Chapter I

The Beginning

So I will take you back to how it all began. My mom and both of her younger brothers came to Newark, NJ, all the way from Trinidad, in February of 1976. My grandmother finally felt complete the day her children were in the United States with her. It was a task to get them all situated and adjusted to the cold weather and the way of life here in New Jersey. As per my grandmother’s instructions, Mommy didn’t waste any time getting around. They were all living in Building 766 on Broadway in North Newark. According to her, Mommy was always going down the hill to the Grafton Avenue projects. No matter how many times she told Mommy not to go down there, Mommy didn’t listen.

No one ever dared to go to the projects unless they knew someone. The folks down there were no joke, but there was something about them that kept her going there.

Despite that, the family was happy back then. Gamma and her husband Jake would go to work every day while Mommy and Uncle Andrew attended high school and their younger brother Larry attended elementary school. Everything was cool except for the times Gamma’s husband would come home drunk and start trouble. I don’t know what happened, but one day Jake was going to get on Mommy for something she didn’t do, and Gamma said, Jake, don’t hit her. She’s pregnant. At this time, Ma was three months pregnant with me, according to Gamma.

So December 13, 1976 was the day I entered into this world. When Ma got home from the hospital, there was nothing but negative vibes and chaos because, per Gamma, Mom didn’t know who my father was. I was told that several guys from around the way came to the house and denied me as their child, but Ma always said that a guy by the name of Chucky was my father. Chucky, in case you didn’t know, is from the Grafton Avenue projects. He too denied me as his child. Well, life went on, and two years later Mommy had my younger sister, Aaliyah. I don’t know what happened, but six months after Aaliyah was born, Mom had a nervous breakdown. Shortly after, we all moved to Lincoln Avenue, which is just a few blocks down from 766 Broadway. Aaliyah’s father didn’t move with us because he and Mom never got along. They were always arguing, according to Gamma.

Time went on and Mom signed me for preschool. Of course, I had to go to the preschool in the Grafton Avenue projects, but needless to say, those were the good days. I remember when my step-dad would carry me over his shoulder as we all crossed the train tracks to preschool. And on the days my step-dad wasn’t there, Mommy and I would walk to school. There was always an old white man standing outside of his building, taking in the fresh morning breeze. I don’t know what it was about him, but I was always happy to see him. I would tell him good morning every day. After a while, he would have a string of lollipops for me, and I would get to school and share them with the other kids in class. I never came home with a lollipop. I also remember the days Mommy would blast her music. She loved Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Miss You, Luther, Teena Marie, etc. I guess this explains why I have such an old soul at just twenty-nine years old. In the summer, the older boys would be in the backyard, flipping on old mattresses, and my sister and I would be in the front, playing. Whenever we got hungry, we would run to the corner store on Delevan and Broadway to steal candy. I couldn’t resist; the candy stand was in the front of the store, by the door. I got so good at it that I didn’t even have to go in the store anymore. I would just kneel down outside, push the door open, and take whatever I wanted. One day we were caught by Uncle Larry while skating back home. He brought us back to the store to return the candy. Another time we were caught by Gamma while we were running from the store with candy in our hands. Man, I got it that day! Gamma grabbed me by the ears and brought us back to the store to return the candy. Needless to say, that was the last time I ever stole candy from the corner store. I was just four years old at that time. It’s amazing because even though I didn’t know Daddy, I was a happy child with a lot of personality.

One morning, we were all startled by a frantic knocking on the front door, so Mom asked who it was, only to hear from a neighbor that the apartment above her was on fire. The fire damaged the roof and walls of Mom’s apartment, so we had to move. The owner had another building in the central ward. He advised Mom that we could stay there until her apartment was fixed. Gamma made the decision to move as well, so our entire family moved across town to 6th Avenue between Roseville Avenue and 9th Street. I must say that that was a drastic change for us. I would see people hanging out at the corner, saying, Hits. Hits. I would ask, Mommy, what are hits? She’d say, That’s drugs. There would be shoot-outs in the street, crack bottles on the sidewalk, crack heads looking for a fix, police chases, and stolen cars. I remember asking myself, What’s wrong with everybody over here?

The first shooting I witnessed was on a summer day. I was outside playing with the super’s niece. While we were playing with the toys, I happened to look up and saw that the people in the street were starting to form a crowd, and they proceeded to walk toward Roseville Avenue. While this was happening, I noticed that Britney started bringing her toys downstairs, so I helped. While moving the toys, I happened to notice that in the crowd of people, a man was stooping really low while he was walking. All of a sudden, he reached over his head and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun from the back of his shirt. I heard gunshots and people screaming and running. Britney ran towards the basement and I followed, because she wasn’t leaving me out there. About ten minutes after all the commotion, Gamma came to check on me, as she was told that I was in the super’s apartment. The good thing was that no one got hurt that day, but for a minute I couldn’t help but think, This never happened on Lincoln Avenue. But little did I know that this was just the beginning of the craziness in my life. Man, something was always going on over there. I was able to tell if danger was around by the movements of the people on the street and knew when to run for safety, whether it was in Mom’s apartment or the basement. My decisions were based on the crowd. That was crazy, but I didn’t worry because I was born with great survival instincts. Sixth Avenue wasn’t only about danger; on hot summer days, they would open the fire hydrant, and we would all play in the water. Or the drug dealers would have their big boom boxes blasting hip-hop and the competition would be on as they tried to see who had the best boom box. Then you’d have the kids who were rebels and threw their shoes over the power lines just for the hell of it. If they didn’t feel like being on the block, they would hit the Patio Lounge or everyone would walk down to Branch Brook Park. I had fun, but it wasn’t so carefree because we were always on the lookout, and as time went on, this was