[Serious] Redditors who grew up in organized crime (street gangs, mafia/mob, cartels etc), what was your upbringing like?

Had to create a Throw Away for obvious reasons. I'll start from the beginning.... My dad was born in central America, he had one older brother and one younger. His mother was panamanian and his father was mexican. His father left him and eventually his mom married a half Mexican half Italian American soldier. They moved to Miami from panama and eventually landed in Los Angeles. My grandpa (step) was a serious gambler and very ambitious. They kept having kids, eventually topping out at 11 boys and 1 girl. In between poppin out kids my grandpa was working in an airport. He met some guys from Mexico who offered him an opportunity to make some serious cash. You can guess where this is headed. He was making good money helping out the mexicans and more importantly he was making good underworld contacts. Around the same time he won a fruit truck in a poker game and invested his airport money into that. In little time he had 2 grocery stores a fleet of fruit trucks a gas station and a few houses. This wasnt enough for him so he decided to get into transporting for the mexicans instead of just giving tips and support. They moved up to San Francisco and set up shop. My grandpa caught a case and ended up in San Quentin where he would meet a few guys that would make up his crew and would eventually become my father's mentors. Interestingly 2 of those guys he met were prolific bank robbers, one was Yakuza and the other from a group I won't name (mexican). My grandpa was released eventually and went back to it. Everything was going good until my dad's older brother decided to make an example out of a dead beat customer. The customer ended up being related to a politician. My uncle caught a 25 year sentence and my family was forced to leave the bay and go back to L.A. once in L.A my grandpa decided to separate himself from the dirty work and go on lavish vacations with his flavor of the month. My father ended up running the day to day operations and working closely with my grandpa's partners. My dad's younger brothers around this time started gang banging and selling dope, mainly to support their drug habits. This is what lead to their downfall. My dad and grandpa never used dope. At this point my dad was in his early 20's and had already married my mom and had my two older siblings. We had houses, a fleet of cars and the best of everything. My parents wedding photos are insane. My mom and older siblings are wearing full length mink coats. My dad was constantly dodging trafficking cases and infuriating law enforcement. They never got him on anything major but he ended up with 7 felonies for sales, assault and other stuff. I came along as things were winding down. My dad was making his exit out of the business and went along on one last deal just as a mediator to introduce his protégé to his mexican contacts. It ended up being a sting operation and my dad caught a major case. I remember that day clearly. I was about 4 and I remember wrestling with my dad's buddy and my dad telling him "let's go". They walked out with a duffle bag and that's the last time I seen him (for 7 more years). He was sentenced to 12 years but back in those days you only did half. He became a Christian inside the pen and decided to never return to the business. The day he got out his old mentors showed up with a paper bag full of money and placed it on our table. My dad respectfully turned it away. They were trying to bring him back in and make up for my grandpa abandoning our family while my dad was away. My dad had been a model citizen for the past 25 years and a hard working man. My grandpa died on the run with millions he couldn't touch. All my dad's brothers are reputed criminals and major drug addicts. There was no hiding this from us... it was our life. I wish I could've taken more time on this but I'm at work. There's sooooo much more to the story. Sorry if it doesn't read like a book.

/r/AskReddit Thread