This story is part of a series focusing on the 30th Street Industrial & Economic Corridor.
Marlon Lindsui sits in his car, outside his grandma’s house, near 29th and Auer waiting for his girlfriend.
Lindsui, who grew up in the neighborhood, says his childhood wasn’t an easy one. “It’s a struggle,” he says. “You see it; you see all these abandoned houses. It’s a struggle, man.”
As always, though, the experience wasn’t all that bad. “Oh, yeah, there’s some good parts, you know what I’m sayin’ – it’s only a struggle if you let it get to you,” says Lindsui. “It was good. You know, my mama was a single parent; she did her business, though – she worked two jobs, did her best to raise us.”
That’s the key, says the 24-year-old Lindsui: go to school, get a job, work hard. “You see me now; got my own car, own house. Got my girlfriend – we’ve been together 10 years, got a little daughter, planning on getting married.”
Lindsui, who’s worked at Waste Management for two years, also writes, produces and performs music. He’s hoping, eventually, it’ll take him places, let him see a little more of the world. Until then, he’s taking pleasure in raising his 5-year-old.
“It’s been a lovely experience,” says Lindsui of fatherhood. “My father wasn’t there for me, so… I’m just gonna be in her life forever.”
He says his favorite part is just watching her get older and answering all the questions she has. “She wants to know what everything is, what everything does. She’s growing up fast, though – it’s like yesterday I was pushin’ her in the stroller, carryin’ her – now, she’s runnin’ around tellin’ me what to do,” says Lindsui. “Reminds me of myself, actually.”
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