A culture of violence

Grumpa and Grimma grew up in a dangerous area described as a 'war zone'

"My father who got in a fight with his friends on an MTA bus one day; and the next day, lost two of the same friends in a retaliatory knife fight"

"My mother who came home from high school, opened the door to the closet to put her coat away, and was attacked by a young man with a gun who had been in the process of robbing her family’s apartment."

Here is an excerpt of Aunt Brie's blog from November 16, 2015:

On Fear, “Gold, Fame, Citrus,” Claire Watkins, and Myself, As Per Usual

November 16, 2015

"I know that fear exists however. I first learned it from my parents. My parents who came of age in the Bronx in the 1970s, in what was essentially a war zone. My father who got in a fight with his friends on an MTA bus one day; and the next day, lost two of the same friends in a retaliatory knife fight. My mother who came home from high school, opened the door to the closet to put her coat away, and was attacked by a young man with a gun who had been in the process of robbing her family’s apartment."