Reply #42: My neighbors' kids live in the trees [View All]

[Mabus]

Two of my neighbors have boys (5 and 4) who practically live in the trees. They don't have a ladder but they have a chair and a favorite tree. This old tree has a great fork that is big enough for them to sit in. Whenever I walk the dogs in the morning I'm challenged by characters (from Robin Hood, Lord of the Rings, Ninja Turtles, Star Wars or some characters they've made up from whole cloth) wanting me to explain myself with a "Hark, who goes there?". I always have to ask who they are and then they go in long explanations of their characters and motivations. Beyond these two there are plenty of "kids" playing in the street year round they are more likely to be the college kids up the street. We actually have kids in two groups. The first is kids under ten. There are about 14 of them. The other group are the college kids between 18 and 22. There are about 10 of them. There are no teenagers in my neighborhood. That's a little strange.

We throw balls with the kids in the neighborhood. We're soft touches. When we're doing yard work in the front yard we're the couple of indeterminate age that the kids know will play with them. We've thrown our fair share of baseballs and frisbees with the two groups of kids. The younger kids also help us pull weeds and, bonus, they'll do it at no cost. The other day I was pulling some weeds and one of the neighbor boys came over. He helped me pull weeds but the whole time he told me *all* about the Bruce Lee movie he had just seen - several times he told me. He also reenacted scenes. Okay, he didn't really help, none of them do, but it's fun. The younger kids do pull weeds from the sidewalks on their own but it is usually when they want a smoother surface for riding their bikes, skateboards, skates or when they are running. There's a park a block over and a number of the parents will go over with the kids. They usually do it in bunches so there's a few parents to watch the kids.

Overall we've actually got a pretty cool little neighborhood. It is a mixture of older retired couples, Section 8 housing and us younger home owners. There's quite a bit of racial diversity too. There are four households with Native Americans, three Hispanic households, five Black households, three Asian and the rest are either white or mixed race. We have a neighborhood block party once a year and tend to help each other out the rest of the year. We had a microburst recently that knocked out power. Campstoves and chainsaws came out and we helped each other clean up yards and make sure everyone was fed. Our neighbor across the street practices with his bluegrass band at his house about once every six weeks. When the weather allows they practice on the porch and most of the neighborhood goes outside to listen to them. We've also got a rock and roll band that gives free concerts. They're pretty cool. Before they practice they go around and tell everyone. We trade vegetables during growing season and watch out for each others kids. We go to each other's houses and play video games, poker and help light water heaters. I've also held the hand of the neighbor who lost her son a couple of years ago. One of our neighbors had his both his legs amputated due to diabetes. We take turns cutting his lawn for him.

But we don't have a paradise by any means. There are a couple of people in the immediate neighborhood that we stay away from. We've got a female peeper. She's one of the Section 8 residents and she's in therapy and on medication now. She's got a bunch of other problems, mostly mental, and she can drive people back into the safety of our houses pretty quickly when she's on a tear. I think one of my neighbors is either a hooker or a dealer. She's got men coming and going all day. Since it's just guys I figured she was a hooker. I rarely see her. On the days she has her grandkids she gets no other visitors. Her grandkids use our basketball goal and ask if they can help us walk the dogs. She's pretty friendly but I've never asked her what she does and she's never asked me what I do. There's also a place across the street from us that rents to month-to-month tenants. It's kind of a half-way house as result. There have been some great people in there but there have also been some doozies. There was one guy who would walk downtown (about eight blocks), get drunk and then steal a bike to get home. At one time there were at least a ten bikes in the yard. There was one couple that broke out every window in their apartment when they had a fight one night.

We also have the only driveway on the block. I can't tell you how many times I've had to call the police to get someone towed because they've parked in our driveway. I'm usually patient and I'll wait. I understand about mistakes or stopping for a few minutes but I've had people pull up in my driveway to work on their car. If I need to leave and the car is there for more than an hour I'll go knock on doors and try to find out who owns the car. If I can't find an owner - because they are sleeping in somewhere - I call the cops and have it towed. So far I've had four cars towed because neither me or the cops could find the owner. What's weird is that no one has come to our door to ask us what's happened to their car in two of the cases. I also have had some of the college kids knocking on my door at weird hours asking to use my printer because they need to print a paper and their printer broke, ink ran out or they ran out of paper. They usually bring beer or coffee with them so I let them in.

Actually I'm feeling pretty damned lucky right now. I live in a pretty good neighborhood. It is vibrant, friendly and full of life.