Hadguns And Poison

8-25-2007

I went to my first house party in Steubenville last night and I had a chance to meet and talk to people who have been living here for a few years already. I felt a whole lot better about the town before going to the party.

I had a few glasses of water over my first few days here and the water tastes horrible. I drank it because I was thirsty, but I’m never drinking or cooking with the tap water here again. Apparently the water pipes aren’t exactly in good shape and there are multiple poisonous chemicals in the tap water. The city of Steubenville periodically sends out mail to everyone in town to warn them of this and to tell them not to drink the water. Some of the side affects if the water is regularly consumed are: Cancer, permanent damage to your central nervous system, and kidney damage, and a pickled liver. Those are all things I can do without out.

I also found out about just how ‘safe’ Steubenville really is. I met two guys who both sleep with 9mm handguns under their pillow at night. Someone was gunned down a month ago in the middle of the street just four houses down from where one of the guys lived and there is a lot of other drug related violence where he lives. My friend Josh lived in a place with a crack house on either side and the two apartments below him had been broken into multiple times.

I left the party at 1:00AM to head home and there were a bunch of shady guys hanging around outside of my apartment. I made it in safe, but after hearing all the stories throughout the night I didn’t exactly feel comfortable.