ABSTRACT
November 2003. As I sat at my second-grade son's soccer game, trying to focus on the game and thinking about revising this essay, a young father of a teammate asked, “Was your [high school] son at the party on Valley Road last night?” I answered that he wasn't, and Joe continued, “Because I heard there were no parents there, and lots of drinking. A friend from the police department called me about 10:30 and said, ‘Joe, is your daughter at a party on Valley? Just want you to know we'll be rolling some cars over there in about 10 minutes and you may want to get her out.’ So I picked her up. But I hear some kids were taken downtown.” Amazed by the story, and the telling, I couldn't help thinking, do people in the South (Blacker) end of town get these calls?
