I must admit that my neighbors haven’t given me much of an issue lately but that’s only because they haven’t been to their house lately. Let me catch you up.
For a number of years I have lived next to this average family. They are of African-American descent, but that doesn’t really factor much into this story. The father looks like he worked a physical job – maybe construction – but is retired due to disability. He walks around his yard sort of like Fred Sanford.
A while back I recall seeing an older daughter but I think she’s long since moved away. The two sons I see quite a bit. They seem to be moving all the time. If they’re not coming from or going to work, one of their friends is coming by to pick them up and they’re off. I only know this because I hear the loud music being played when people are coming or going.
One of them had a problem with their tire and asked if I couldn’t drop them off at a nearby gas station so they could fill it with air. I was running a little late but I obliged. We didn’t say much during the short trip but I remember the “morning knuckle-heads” I was listening to were performing a racially insensitive skit at the time. I didn’t react to it and just wished the trip would go by faster. I was a bit embarrassed by it all.
I will sometimes see the mother drive off… I suppose it’s to work. She gets in her big (but older model) Cadillac. It’s been a few years, but there used to be this woman who would drive up in her car, park in the driveway, and honk her horn until someone came out to the car. It appeared that some kind of food was delivered to her while she sat in the car. This whole transaction was carried out early on Saturday morning (when I was trying to sleep in).
A couple of times I’ve seen an ambulance arrive at the house. It appeared that an elderly woman (the grandmother?) was carted off but she always returned. That hasn’t happened in a while.
It’s been a few months now since their house was deemed “unlivable” – I don’t know for what reason. On the weekends I see the older boys and their friends come and tear things out of the house. A couple weeks ago it was all the carpet and cabinets and other things you wouldn’t think would come out of a house. All these items sat in a lump on the driveway. The rain did not help the matter any. They finally came and carted it away.
When I would pull up in my driveway, one of the boys would be sitting on their front porch like he was securing the place. If it was too cold, they’d be sitting in a car parked on the street watching the house.
This past weekend there were more items moved out of the house and placed on the lawn. It looked like a refrigerator, a mattress, a wheelchair and some other small items were left at the end of the yard for someone to come and pick them up. By this morning the wheelchair was gone and I was awoken by the sound of a couple wrestling the refrigerator into the back of their pickup truck.
Later that morning, I happened to be looking out the window when a car pulled up. It wasn’t a car that I had seen before. Then another… and another. Then I started to see some cars I’ve seen before and the two oldest sons appear. One or two more cars appear and I’m thinking to myself “what in the world is going on?”
There are four well-dressed men standing in their front yard. A dark blue car pulls up but no one exits that car. Next I see a gold stretch limo pull up – followed by a matching colored hearse. My heart sinks.
I watch as the last two vehicles make their way down the street to turn around. More well dressed men appear in long dark coats and hats. It is cold and they are standing in the front yard waiting. I can’t believe I’m still watching but I can’t look away.
Finally a plan has been set. All the young children are piled into the back of the limo. An elderly woman is helped from her wheelchair into the front seat of the limo. The others get into their appointed cars and turn on their emergency blinkers. The procession pulls away.
I run to my computer and look at the “obituaries” section for the online version of the local paper. Sure enough, there he is – the patriarch of the family has died.
I only had one or two dealings with the man but he seemed nice enough. I always wondered why he and the missus didn’t keep a tighter rein on the kids but that was really none of my business. He once asked me if I smoked. I told him that I did not. Apparently he had come into some cigarettes and was trying to give them away.
Another time he hailed me down as I was mowing my lawn and asked me if I knew where my water cut-off was located. I directed him to the water device that I knew about in my front yard but he told me that was my meter. (It turned out that a few years later the city came into my yard and THEY couldn’t find the cut-off either. They were just as happy to tear up my yard, though!)
Another time the sons waved me down (again, as I was mowing the lawn) and asked me if I had a hose they could borrow. When I inquired as to its use they dragged up a punching dummy made of hard plastic and wanted to fill the base of it with water. Normally these things are filled with sand, so they don’t fall down when hit, but they knew that water would do the trick.
My hose was already connected and I turned it on to fill it up. While the water was running they admitted that they only wanted to use the hose, not that they were trying to get the water too but I didn’t have a problem with it. They don’t ask for much.
Over the following weeks I saw that plastic dummy take quite a beating – but it never got knocked down.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the house next to mine. I’m a curious person but not enough that I’ll walk up to my neighbors and ask what’s happening. I’d rather piece the mystery together with what I see.
Robert Frost knew it…
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
For a number of years I have lived next to this average family. They are of African-American descent, but that doesn’t really factor much into this story. The father looks like he worked a physical job – maybe construction – but is retired due to disability. He walks around his yard sort of like Fred Sanford.
A while back I recall seeing an older daughter but I think she’s long since moved away. The two sons I see quite a bit. They seem to be moving all the time. If they’re not coming from or going to work, one of their friends is coming by to pick them up and they’re off. I only know this because I hear the loud music being played when people are coming or going.
One of them had a problem with their tire and asked if I couldn’t drop them off at a nearby gas station so they could fill it with air. I was running a little late but I obliged. We didn’t say much during the short trip but I remember the “morning knuckle-heads” I was listening to were performing a racially insensitive skit at the time. I didn’t react to it and just wished the trip would go by faster. I was a bit embarrassed by it all.
I will sometimes see the mother drive off… I suppose it’s to work. She gets in her big (but older model) Cadillac. It’s been a few years, but there used to be this woman who would drive up in her car, park in the driveway, and honk her horn until someone came out to the car. It appeared that some kind of food was delivered to her while she sat in the car. This whole transaction was carried out early on Saturday morning (when I was trying to sleep in).
A couple of times I’ve seen an ambulance arrive at the house. It appeared that an elderly woman (the grandmother?) was carted off but she always returned. That hasn’t happened in a while.
It’s been a few months now since their house was deemed “unlivable” – I don’t know for what reason. On the weekends I see the older boys and their friends come and tear things out of the house. A couple weeks ago it was all the carpet and cabinets and other things you wouldn’t think would come out of a house. All these items sat in a lump on the driveway. The rain did not help the matter any. They finally came and carted it away.
When I would pull up in my driveway, one of the boys would be sitting on their front porch like he was securing the place. If it was too cold, they’d be sitting in a car parked on the street watching the house.
This past weekend there were more items moved out of the house and placed on the lawn. It looked like a refrigerator, a mattress, a wheelchair and some other small items were left at the end of the yard for someone to come and pick them up. By this morning the wheelchair was gone and I was awoken by the sound of a couple wrestling the refrigerator into the back of their pickup truck.
Later that morning, I happened to be looking out the window when a car pulled up. It wasn’t a car that I had seen before. Then another… and another. Then I started to see some cars I’ve seen before and the two oldest sons appear. One or two more cars appear and I’m thinking to myself “what in the world is going on?”
There are four well-dressed men standing in their front yard. A dark blue car pulls up but no one exits that car. Next I see a gold stretch limo pull up – followed by a matching colored hearse. My heart sinks.
I watch as the last two vehicles make their way down the street to turn around. More well dressed men appear in long dark coats and hats. It is cold and they are standing in the front yard waiting. I can’t believe I’m still watching but I can’t look away.
Finally a plan has been set. All the young children are piled into the back of the limo. An elderly woman is helped from her wheelchair into the front seat of the limo. The others get into their appointed cars and turn on their emergency blinkers. The procession pulls away.
I run to my computer and look at the “obituaries” section for the online version of the local paper. Sure enough, there he is – the patriarch of the family has died.
I only had one or two dealings with the man but he seemed nice enough. I always wondered why he and the missus didn’t keep a tighter rein on the kids but that was really none of my business. He once asked me if I smoked. I told him that I did not. Apparently he had come into some cigarettes and was trying to give them away.
Another time he hailed me down as I was mowing my lawn and asked me if I knew where my water cut-off was located. I directed him to the water device that I knew about in my front yard but he told me that was my meter. (It turned out that a few years later the city came into my yard and THEY couldn’t find the cut-off either. They were just as happy to tear up my yard, though!)
Another time the sons waved me down (again, as I was mowing the lawn) and asked me if I had a hose they could borrow. When I inquired as to its use they dragged up a punching dummy made of hard plastic and wanted to fill the base of it with water. Normally these things are filled with sand, so they don’t fall down when hit, but they knew that water would do the trick.
My hose was already connected and I turned it on to fill it up. While the water was running they admitted that they only wanted to use the hose, not that they were trying to get the water too but I didn’t have a problem with it. They don’t ask for much.
Over the following weeks I saw that plastic dummy take quite a beating – but it never got knocked down.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the house next to mine. I’m a curious person but not enough that I’ll walk up to my neighbors and ask what’s happening. I’d rather piece the mystery together with what I see.
Robert Frost knew it…
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
-- Mending Wall
-- Mending Wall