What's a Had Hat?

He walked into my cube and asked if I knew so-and-so. I thought for a moment because the name he said wasn't like Harry Williams but more like Dutchy O'Neil and the latter is more like a bunch of other odd ball nicknames that folks from my hometown are refer to by but I didn't know the guy he mentioned and I said so.

"Oh, I thought you knew him."

"Yeah, nope. I don't."

"Well, he took two to the back of the head at M Street beach, this morning."

"Wow."

"Yeah. He was in and out of jail his whole life. I just thought you knew him."

My home was in the neighborhood but I never felt that my hometown was my home, as soon as I left my front steps, I was a foreigner.

I never drank on the corner. I never did drugs. I never tried to completely pound the life out of someone during a fight. I never had any first hand dealings with the mob. I never personally knew most of the guys with the odd nicknames. I never hated someone based solely on race.

One on one, the guys were fine with me but in a group, I was an outsider. I never bought into what was required to fit in. I dropped using double negatives but you can still tell where I'm from if I say something about a hard heart.