Unlawful Loitering In Pigtown

As Seen in Pigtown, Baltimore

I love the city.

Kind of.

It scares me, fascinates me, draws me in, and pushes me away all at the same time.

I wish I could spend every day there just walking around and photographing 

the sites and people in their natural environment and then 

return home to the country each evening where I feel grounded.

When I go into the city, I feel electric with excitement...

all the visual stimulus of what it has to offer.

I find the people immensely interesting

and I wish I had the guts to approach them without fear.

This is where I think if I were a guy I would feel much safer

walking around with my camera;

it is the only time I feel my gender holds me back from doing what I want to do.

Actually, it isn't my gender that holds me back with fear,

it is my own sense of vulnerability I feel walking in the city streets alone

as a woman that scares me.

It makes me sad, because I would love to feel comfortable in the city.

Growing up in the suburbs it was pounded into me that the city is a dangerous,

mean place where horrible things happen...especially in "those" neighborhoods

and especially in Baltimore.

I have never really gotten over that childhood fear

and I wish I could.

I took this image as a passenger in a car while driving through Pigtown

using my iPhone...with the window up, lol.

I had never been in this part of the city before.

I didn't even know why they called it "Pigtown"

until I came home and googled it.

I guessed why when I saw the large brick buildings, the train tracks, and the 

Pigtown signs that showed a pig diagram with butcher marks on it,

but I didn't know for sure until I read the Wikepedia article about it.

I was happy to see my deduction was correct...this is where the pigs

were unloaded from the trains to be walked 

through the streets to the butchering shops.

Today I am thankful for the time I spent with family yesterday

eating Maryland crabs and teaching my little ones how to pick their own crabs.

I do love Maryland for all the diversity it offers...

the city, the country, and of course, Maryland Crabs covered in Old Bay.

xo