My Illustrious Hometown

Stefan Ardey

My Illustrious Hometown

I come from a place that gave birth to a couple of well-known basketball players in the NBA. I grew up in a town that's in the Big Apple, the city of dreams. My hometown is probably only one of the few one block twenty buildings apartment complex around. Each floor has eighteen floors. My hometown breeds rappers, too. These rappers leave the hometown but still represent it. The numbers five and seven are used as hand signs to symbolize and signify the hometown, and its broad road that goes straight down after Junction Boulevard and ends at 99th Street. It's called 57th Avenue. This hometown has everything within a five-block radius. You can cross the street and go to a supermarket. You can cross the street and go to a fast-food restaurant.

I was born and raised here. I hail from here. The place is called LeFrak City. It is my stomping grounds. It is my neck of the woods. It is my hometown. Around here, almost everyone knew each other because you grew up knowing them even if you weren't close to them. My parents literally knew everyone around. My parents have been here since the late 1980s. I would like to say I grew up in the golden era of LeFrak City, but the golden era started in the 1980s and I wasn't born by then. I wasn't born till early 1991. My hometown has a swimming pool, playgrounds, basketball courts, a tennis court, and many benches to sit on. My hometown has many entrances and exits to pass through.

My hometown was known at one point for having many drug dealings and many drug dealers. Most people that come from that era know about the drug raid of 1997. The police came in large numbers and raided LeFrak City. Most drug kingpins were arrested. I hold my hometown in high regard. I attribute all that I am to my hometown. I remember playing in the park with my friends while dealing with the tough guys around that wanted to prove how tough they were. My hometown has a subway station, a post office, a diner, an African market where all the Ghanaians get their home food and groceries from. My hometown even has a mall.

My hometown is located in Corona, Queens, New York City. My hometown has an elementary school not too far from it and a middle school. I attended the elementary school but went elsewhere for middle school. My hometown is full of excitement, interesting, and social people. My hometown speaks volumes to those across the borough of Queens. I can live in any other place in the world, but I will never, ever forget where I come from. I will never forget my hometown. I love my hometown. Even if my hometown won't show love to me anymore, I will still always show love to it.

My hometown is very diverse ethnically and has many cultures. LeFrak City brought people of different ethnicities together. My hometown taught me how to be tough, know who to hang around with and who to stay away from. This was back then when in New York you could go to the corner store and get a bag of chips, candy, and some juice for a dollar or less. Home is where the heart is and my heart is in my hometown. The mall in my hometown is called the Queens Center Mall, which is one of the most popular malls in Queens. Fast forward over 10 years later, my hometown now has a second mall.

I bought my first couple of rap albums in my hometown after I started really getting into Hip-Hop and Rap music. I would buy them at Circuit City, which no longer exists today. I learned how to play basketball, dress up and have a fashion sense in my hometown. I learned to rap and write songs in my hometown. I had my first girlfriend in my hometown. I had my first passport picture taken in my hometown. I travel overseas for the first time in my hometown. I got a visa for the first time in my hometown. I learned how to fight, go home by myself after school and become very creative artistically in my hometown. I was very good at drawing in my hometown. I had my first birthday party in my hometown. I learned how to save money in my hometown.

Abdou, Andre, Jose, Sherman, Mamadou, Fred, Tritobia are among many people that I befriended in my hometown. Andre and Abdou were my best friends in my hometown. They were like brothers from another mother in my hometown. I used to act out Dragon Ball Z characters with Abdou back when I thought I was one of them in my hometown. We used to get beat up by a bully in my hometown. Andre and I transitioned into our teenage years together in my hometown. We both rapped and played basketball together in my hometown. We both collected and traded Pokemon cards and watched Dragon Ball Z, too. We both kept track of our growth spurt. Tritobia was an ex-girlfriend of mine that attended the same church I attended, which is a Presbyterian church in my hometown. Roseanna was my first girlfriend that I met in elementary school in my hometown. LeFrak was the place to be.