In the 1960s, the Oakland Flats were the ghetto-like urban core of Oakland, California. It was home to the rising Black Panthers--and to lots of kids. These photos were made while I introduced darkroom photography to the kids of the Oakland Boys' Club. We wandered, we explored. We had lots more fun than scary 60s news headlines would suggest. And all the time my own camera was picking out windows, walls, or the kids themselves. Growing up with hand grenades and such in shop windows, what effect does that have? A poetic document.