Son of Friendship

I am a son of Friendship.

What does that mean, exactly?

It means that Conway proper tended to crap on us by not extending us the same benefits of other communities and neighborhoods annexed into its city limits such as stopping the water line at the old Highway 25 intersection almost thirty years ago, delaying the gas line prior without a financial payment to one prominent citizen's family, and trash service that will likely never happen.

How sway of folks to say they got it out the mud as they grew up with everything handed to them.

Coming next week...#SonOfFriendship pic.twitter.com/VNj5c2WGud

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) April 12, 2021

It meant that other 'hoods tended to look on us like nappyheaded stepchildren in a family of light skins, like Wesley Snipes surrounded by the DeBarges. Y'all acted like we didn't have hands or assorted goon tendencies, and aside from the related folks who were there long before my parents moved me to the 'Ship back in 1979, then-Judge Carter had us make do with dirt roads and rural route numbers for addresses (Keep in mind 911 didn't reach us until 1990, and it possibly wasn't a thing in the 72032 yet).

But, being a son of Friendship has had its perks that my kid will never know:

• Bike riding from mid-morning to the time the street lights came on;

• Hooping (not just playing basketball - there's a difference) on dirt courts to develop that handle or in my case, the low post game;

• Kickball games in the most expansive yard and being able to get the ball without having to climb fences;

• Stopping Joe Michael the soda pop man when he would drive through on those hot summer afternoons;

• Four-wheeling some of everywhere;

• You knew where everyone was Wednesday night at 7 or Sunday morning from 11-2 or so;

• The OGs truly looked out for us [Rayfus, Roy Lee, Dee Dee, Mack Ray, AJG, Big Mike, etc.- RIL];

• In the late 80s and early 90s, video game tournaments were REAL;

• Each kid was treated like family but you weren't using the bathroom inside girls excluded;

• The garden hose was your source of cold refreshment;

• At a certain driving age, your car was practically required to have a system that could knock pictures off the wall with its bass;

• Almost everyone had a nickname;

• You had a story from when Ms. Susi, Mr. Woods, or Rev. Forte drove the school bus;

• Middle school kids were quite the entrepreneurs selling candy each Friday to the elementary riders;

• The little white house in the curve is now yellow;

• and so forth. Seriously, there are too many memories of my childhood not to rep the place I grew up in.

Being a son of Friendship has taught a resiliency that otherwise would have made me fold like notebook paper notes that were passed around from one desk to the next.

Beyond the G-code, there was a level of morality expected of me:  If you fought in the streets, you kept it in the streets for that one time. No point in broadcasting who caught a fade on the court or in the road when the people who mattered either were there or already knew within a few minutes. You shook hands and dapped up the next time you saw each other as the previous animus was largely forgotten about instead of having a burning desire for gunplay.

In Black culture, the ancestors and OGs alike used to tell us that we have to be twice as good for the same opportunities that the other folks had. It is in Friendship where we learned to build our own tables and bring our own chairs for our own advancements; they weren't exactly wrong due to how they had to get it in their younger years but when you learned better, you acted accordingly.

In recent years, I've said Friendship Road raised me - and that is no lie. Conway might have educated me and introduced me to most of you, Arkadelphia grew me up, Colebrook (and Winsted by default) reminded me that I am a Black man in America, and Bryant is where I do life with my amazing wife Chastity, raise our Little Bear, do tech stuff, and sling some damn good barbecue, but at the end of the day, the 'Ship is home. 

Always has been. Always will be.

If you know where I'm from, #Friendship made me. pic.twitter.com/KGIAISkPW7

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) February 22, 2021

I'm gonna put on as the community I was raised in sadly becomes gentrified - and to an extent, I blame myself for that happening. When I left in 1997, I never fathomed that Friendship would be so desired - with all of the potential developments and the events center popping up, it is only a matter of time before the land I remembered becomes something completely foreign with the property tax increases to match.

Any count, the 'Ship has an outsized role in me becoming the man I am today. 

As a son of Friendship, it's undeniable.