As a child my city neighborhood was a mysterious playground full of shadowy, beckoning adventures. "The Hollow" with its monkey vine infested woods and minnow stream, the small dark, woody spur of Leakin Park inhabited no doubt by child-stealers, and, of course, the prerequisite witch who lived at the end of my block.

The mystery, however, was not limited to my neighborhood alone. Given the freedom to ride streetcars and explore the city, the mystery of Baltimore's many neighborhoods, each unique, laid before me to be discovered. "The Avenue," Pennsylvania Avenue; imagine the delights available to a white boy exploring this world-renown Baltimore neighborhood of Black culture. The crowded wharves of Fells Point, the melon-boats unloading produce from the Eastern Shore and points south, the banana boats from South America, passenger packets, too, heading to exotic ports, or the foot of Fleet full of boats carrying spices and coffee beans from around the world, just across the harbor from the sugar factory unloading sugar cane from Cuba and the Dominican Republic. more: www.urbanparadoxes.com/child.htm