What are you guys doing?”- I yelled from the dining room door.
Three young guys had been standing up on my lawn next to a garden and a pair of municipal election signs. I had heard from neighbours that signs were being pulled out of the ground and thrown onto the street. I thought this was the attraction.
“Nothing”- was the reply.
I countered- “What were you doing up on my property then?”
“We were just wiping this piece of paper on the damp grass to get it wet”- says one of the trio.
“That’s all?”
“Yes. Sorry”- replied the one.
“We just wanted it wet”- said another.
I didn’t ask why. I get a little jumpy when kids walk on my property. Over the years with two schools in the neighbourhood, we’ve had plenty of trouble. Flowers snipped, plants uprooted, eggs thrown on our house, garbage strewn on the lawn not to mention smoking pot and doing cocaine right on our driveway- in broad daylight.
As a matter of fact, one memorable sunny day a couple of years ago- just after eleven in the morning, a pair of blonde girls sat on the curb just outside my window and heated the cocaine in empty Coke cans.
Cheaper than a bong from Happy Dayz!
Charming.
I asked them to move along and never come back to this street again.
They apologized and moved along.
Huh, imagine, apologizing to me as they damaged brain cells.
It was unsettling.
Someone said to me, the two of them could have pulled a knife and jabbed me in the gut or come back- under the cover of darkness, just to set my house on fire.
Boy, I hope we haven’t climbed down to that rung on the evolutionary ladder!
What these kids have to do to get them through a day at school.
Booze, drugs, whatever. It doesn’t matter. The point is, it’s terrible that kids have to do simply because of peer pressure, the movies or an inability to cope.
On another point, why do young men climb onto their skateboards at the top of the hill on Peter Street North and head down the hill through a four way stop and into the traffic at Coldwater and Peter Streets.
Are they on drugs or do they get a “jolt” careening headlong into a Smart car. These guys aren’t about to share the road and they certainly seem oblivious to oncoming traffic.
Yesterday, as I waited at a red light at Coldwater and Peter, a young “dude” was coming down the hill, through the fourway, towards the lights at the intersection in front of me. I wondered- Should I proceed through the intersection, blow my horn and call him a stupid *&^&^**&^ or should I just keep an eye on him and drive by safely?
I opted to do the latter.
Why should I get fussed about this young idiot who might one day spend the rest of his life as a vegetable in an electric wheelchair- if he were to be hit by a car- or even a bus. I suppose it’s just the blurry, wide-eyed ego of youth rearing its ugly head. When one is that young one thinks they are on this earth to live forever.
You and I know that’s not the case.
We are born yesterday.
We’re here today.
We become ill tomorrow-
And die the next day.
The Circle of Life.
If those three boys stood on my lawn to rub a piece of white paper over the dew on my lawn- goodness knows why, that’s not such a bad thing.
Worse things are out there to lure them into danger.
Have a nice one!
