The Ave

For members of a degenerate website, a lot of you are true blue suburban squares.

"Seattle sucks, it's just depressing." You probably think Anthony's Home Port is how all restaurants shoule be.

Most of you don't know shit about Seattle, I can tell.

The waterfront, downtown, capitol hill, U-district has always been full of homeless people.

1980's Seattle was actually scarier than 2021 Seattle. Seattle has become so gentrified it's ridiculous.

You guys have no basis of comparison. And are mostly lame.
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Crack cocaine and LA gangs moving in definitely made things interesting, especially in the CD and Souf End. Knew people who were car jacked. Know a couple kids, north end at that, who are serving time. In 1989 kid I got into a fight with in the 4th grade in National Geographic the following year, was running drugs for a gang in the CD/Downtown. He was 9, maybe 10. There he is, crying as a police officer is talking to him. Multiple classmates in elementary, middle and high school represented gangs. Died down a lot though after freshman year after a lot of gang members were locked up, and gentrification started taking hold in the CD. RIP Collins Gold Exchange.

There were homeless people along the freeway's then too, but they didn't have tents or amass large amounts of trash. They were more hobo, riding rails. I remember under I-5 at Ravenna Blvd people sleeping up under the road, and a few RVs. Soup kitchens in the U District and other places in town have always been the draw. Mennonite church (in the old theater) in Lake City. Blessed Sacrament and a few others in the UDistrict. Heroin was probably a thing, but it seemed mostly alcoholism was biggest issue. Do they even sell Thunderbird or Boones anymore? @Swaye should know.

Watch shows / documentaries like Street Wise was a look at Seattle during the early 80's. Fact is America and society in general was much more open to letting kids run free, and taking less offense or sensationalizing some of that stuff. Now that shit would be front page news.
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Thunderbird got disco'ed for like a year then was relaunched. It's no longer the 20% powerhouse of the good old days. Watered down ass now. Tbh, I still think it's around 15%. I'll probably drink some tonight even though I hate it. TYFYS. Dick.
 
New look Thunderbird.

ci-thunderbird-chardonnay-73af5012b742928d.png


I don't discuss Boones because that's chick shit.
 
For members of a degenerate website, a lot of you are true blue suburban squares.

"Seattle sucks, it's just depressing." You probably think Anthony's Home Port is how all restaurants shoule be.

Most of you don't know shit about Seattle, I can tell.

The waterfront, downtown, capitol hill, U-district has always been full of homeless people.

1980's Seattle was actually scarier than 2021 Seattle. Seattle has become so gentrified it's ridiculous.

You guys have no basis of comparison. And are mostly lame.
Click to expand...

Crack cocaine and LA gangs moving in definitely made things interesting, especially in the CD and Souf End. Knew people who were car jacked. Know a couple kids, north end at that, who are serving time. In 1989 kid I got into a fight with in the 4th grade in National Geographic the following year, was running drugs for a gang in the CD/Downtown. He was 9, maybe 10. There he is, crying as a police officer is talking to him. Multiple classmates in elementary, middle and high school represented gangs. Died down a lot though after freshman year after a lot of gang members were locked up, and gentrification started taking hold in the CD. RIP Collins Gold Exchange.

There were homeless people along the freeway's then too, but they didn't have tents or amass large amounts of trash. They were more hobo, riding rails. I remember under I-5 at Ravenna Blvd people sleeping up under the road, and a few RVs. Soup kitchens in the U District and other places in town have always been the draw. Mennonite church (in the old theater) in Lake City. Blessed Sacrament and a few others in the UDistrict. Heroin was probably a thing, but it seemed mostly alcoholism was biggest issue. Do they even sell Thunderbird or Boones anymore? @Swaye should know.

Watch shows / documentaries like Street Wise was a look at Seattle during the early 80's. Fact is America and society in general was much more open to letting kids run free, and taking less offense or sensationalizing some of that stuff. Now that shit would be front page news.
Click to expand...

I work with a guy who's... a little off. I'd picked up a few things over the years that would suggest he took a mental health break in Alaska for a while and that he'd been shot. I guess I just assumed it was PTSD from participating in that limited skirmish in the middle east. I found out just a few months ago that I'd been wrong that whole time. He was in the shack telling the story about catching a bus to Alaska while still fresh off the operating table to fix up where a bullet went through his abdomen. I asked, "Where were you when you got shot?" expecting an answer like "Kandahar" or "Fallujah."

His response? "What? Uh, Seattle."

"You got shot in Seattle[/i]!? What the fuck were you doing!?"

"Uh, I was bangin', man..."

What followed was one of the more fascinating couple of hours of my life, listening to stories of walking through the door of his dad's house right as bullets from a drive-by started flying, wasting his buddy on the porch who hadn't stepped inside yet, watching from a window as his older homie get executed in the street for killing one of the guys involved in that drive-by. Hell, the story of how he got shot was pretty hilarious, with him "zigging when everyone else zagged," getting stuck immediately in a corner, reaching for his gun only to realize he wasn't carrying it that day, then getting shot.

I told him I had no idea gang warfare was even a thing in Seattle. He said it's a big deal (at least was then), with lots of competing gangs who form and break alliances and generally kill each other a lot. He left the hospital early to get the hell out of town, and his trip to Alaska was mostly to hide out and start over. Seattle's still off-limits to him, as he'd rather not be murdered.
 
I remember that dude posted up outside of Safeway on Brooklyn near 50th.
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I do not but I'm not sure of the timing. I lived on 52nd and Brooklyn for two years. We spent a lot of time in the back alley, between the Ave and Brooklyn, throwing the turbo nerf. For a while we had a small group of homeless dudes who would lurk around hoping to watch us so they could commentate and say things like ZOOM! or ZIP! when someone would throw. I got to be pretty fond of them. They'd offer a puff off a joint and a pull off their bottle too. Never asked for a dime.

The bummer part was that I came across two of those guys dead over the course of a month or so. One was hit by a car on the Ave. When I saw him he was partially covered but the cops weren't there yet. Blood everywhere. The other died in the alley. Our neighbors found the body and I called it in. Heroin, I think.
 
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