Gangs in the Projects before gang bangers

I guess I was part of a gang and did not realize it at the time. There were these children brother and sister our friends they lived on the 10th floor . They smelled like pee or urine all the time. Their clothing were dirty and wrinkled just nasty. The girl's hair was never combed it was just full of hair grease that Dixie peach and full of lint held together with red rubber bands. Their mother was never home. Those kids lived alone for several days. They would let us the kids ; in the building their friends ,know that their mom was not at home. They took turns asking if they could eat lunch with us or dinner. My mom would let them eat at our house often. One day I asked my mother if the girl could have one of my dresses because I felt so badly for her. My mother obliged. My mom was also a hairdresser she also washed the girls hair and straightened it. My father took her brother and my brother to the barber shop. Wow what a difference those kids were so happy. So were we! When the other kids in the building saw the good results other families started doing the same thing.
The bad thing is their mother was a trip. She had the nerve to come banging on our door cursing our mother out about feeding and cleaning her children.
My mother was going to let her have it but our dad jumped in.

My mother was so angry it was the first time I ever heard her call someone an hoe.

After the incident the children did not speak to us for a while their mother was home for a period of time but then she up and vanished again. The kids had no food and they were back to stank. This time we, the children of the building decided to meet and figure out how to get them food since their Mom had burnt their support system with her mouth.

We elected certain ones to go to various stores in the area to steal food for them. We chose the ones that we knew were good enough to get away with out getting caught we put them in teams.

Then we had the kids such as myself that the store owners liked and we had to go and ask directly for extra lunch meat for our friends. This system worked the kids got food.

We never viewed this system as wrong or as a gang we just thought of it as a way to provide for those around our way that were in need.

Looking back I realize that we were a gang. We fought for one another and covered for each others needs. Although we were young children the oldest 12 years old we just thought we were doing good.