Hoodlum

I don't feel so young but I realize that is a relative to whom you are speaking with
LOL

Yes since childhood

In the belly of beast

To give you an idea of what it was like:

Bronx Tale was about as close as you could get to the real thing.

1) With C, living within close proximity to a hang-out or club, the olderguys taking a liking to the GOOD KID and watching out for him and taking him under their wing.
2) Then growing up a little bit and the older guys schooling you, us kids looking up to those guys like they were GODS,
3) The younger guys trying to imitate and impress the older guys, they start asking for small favors, a broken window, slashed tire, and we were so happy to do it just to get their attetieion. The problem with that was the older you got the more serious the favors got... Steel a car, Burn a Car and you can imagine where this is going....
A lot like in Good Fella's with Henry Hill and Joe Pesci, you get older and get more involved.. It was no big deal.... It was Normal... It felt like everyone was in on some sort of racket.

4) The scene in the Bar with the Bikers, I have many different versions of that type of story, the part with Pesci getting hit with a bat over a parking spot, stuff on that level very common, All of C's friends acting like wanna bee's, there was a crew of wannab'ees on every avenue.
5) To the part where Sunny gets whacked in the bar, every so often there was a body in the street, or someone disappeared.
6) Goodfella's when Henry Hill was young and the cab stand, again the ineratcion between the younger and older generation.
7) The God Father being the old timers in the neighborhood and how they would act all dressed in suits like business men.
8) Scar Face the newer generation running around selling drugs

There was a side to it that was very neighborhoody you knew just about everyone and everyone knew you and your family.
Everyone watched out for everyone. For the most part.

You grew up fast and the neighborhood taught you lessons like respect,
Respect your elders, respect woman, children

Mind your business, Keep your mouth shut
Never talk to cops

And if you didn't learn your lesson you would end up in a trunk.
Most learned...

It was a lot of fun
At times scary, sometimes VERY SCARY
Some really sad storys as well...

I would imagine Philly was like a mini version of what I described above??