Earnest Sims Sr.

Across the Tracks Earnest Sims Sr.

CRACK COCAINE: THE DESTRUCTION OF ACROSS THE TRACKS. The law said the city would shut down Across the Tracks. The 'Cross the Tracks goers said that was impossible. "Nothing would ever shut Across the Tracks down" predicted the dwellers of the juke joints and sidewalks Across the Tracks. But when "crack cocaine" hit the streets of Stuttgart, the drug saved the city a task and proved those dwellers dead wrong, as Across the Tracks became a thing of the past. You drove through Across the Tracks today, it's like a residential area of a neighborhood under curfew. You rode through there yesterday, it's alive, like a Boom Town of the Old West, full of honky-tonks, drinking, gambling, trysting, a pool hall, peril and loud music . . . The story you are about to read, isn't about the cocaine days, but the days of marijuana, before the "rocks" hit the streets Across the Tracks, back when the place was full of fun, laughter, calamity, jukeboxes, and everybody having a goodtime . . .