Crack Monkey

This ancient picture (1999!) of this contributor blasting a wallie off this sketchy bump-to-wall was taken on 15th Street, between Mission and South Van Ness. He was 20-years-old at the time.

The angle on the run-up at this spot was a little awkward and clearing that sidewalk gap was quite a leap, but from what we recall, it didn’t take us too many tries to land it. In fact, we pulled it a couple of times. We particularly like this photo because of all the different stuff to look at, such as the “bus hopper” style tags on the wall, the grit and grime on the sidewalk and street, and if you haven’t already noticed, at the bottom right-hand corner of the picture you can even see a fisheye enhanced shadow of a skateboard.

However, what you can’t see in this photo are the two young boys (brothers maybe), ranging in age from 9 to 12, that are smoking crack cocaine a mere 15-feet away, just outside the left frame of the shot. No lie. It was probably one of the most disturbing things we’ve ever seen. What's more, both boys were hitting that dirty glass pipe like they’d been smoking rocks their whole lives, which led us to believe that they were probably born into this world with a crack monkey attached to their backs. Who knows though, they very well could have picked the habit up on the street.

Ten years have now passed since this photo was taken, meaning these two boys are now in their late teens or early 20s, and we can’t help but wonder what became of them. In the immortal words of the late Rick James, "Crack’s a hell of a drug." (By Travis Jensen)