i agree with what you've said about being from and of the street - it's all about your primeval sense of awareness, like you said you absorb everything and look upon things that wouldn't ordinarily be there with a touch of curiosity as well as tightening your muscles cos whatever it is in not right and doesn't belong.
shermans views don't take any of this instinct into account - there are many things that are available to anyone who ends up in a street scrap - i've seen trash cans being used, bricks, glass bottles, ashtrays now that smoking has been banished outside

there's all sorts of stuff with which to defend yourself and sherman completely misses the point.
when i moved here i took days just looking around seeing where things were and what could/might be used in a scrap --- this place although quiet is where everyone that has done really really bad things came to cos it's out of the way and no cop ever bothers with it
sherman fails to tell us that we all need to do our homework - work out what's where, work out where the likely escape routes are and aren't and then you begin to become attuned to the street cos until you have a full understanding of how the street works chances are it'll work against you. if you take time to analyse your street you'll see the little things, next doors cat has a favourite way of crossing the street, the kids from down the road playing on their bikes, where cars are parked, the gardens with trees to privde privacy for the owners, the way the phone cables are laid out, where the street lighting is and how much light they shed onto the ground and where --- these things although they might seem a bit OTT all help in understanding the street. you can never have too much detail this is when you learn to chill out and relax cos you are now part of the fixtures and fittings of your street.
ME - EDUCATED ON THE STREET AND GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LIFE

unlike sherman - using the stuff he's posted i'd probably have been dead many years ago............