Tales From the South Side...
One seems never at a loss when it comes to providing stories (all of them painfully TRUE) regarding this wonderfully neglected part of Fort Wayne.
Turn over ANY rock, and you'll find something (and once in a while, someone).
My wife grew up in this area...hell, she grew up in the very house we live in...call it "passing it forward", courtesy of the in-laws.
And it's amazing to watch as the AREA and the PEOPLE change around you. But, there is one very important caveat you have to consider.
YOU are also PART of all this...you're not watching a DVD of some "show"...it's REALITY, stark and often unpleasing.
Now, I've always been one of those people that doesn't stick my nose where it doesn't belong, and I don't go looking for any kind of "trouble".
Dad always said:
"You don't have to look for trouble son...it'll find YOU soon enough", and by God was he ever right.
(especially when it comes to dealing with the lowest class of humanity trying to pass itself off as "people")
As far as I'm concerned, what people do BEHIND THEIR DOORS is THEIR business...not mine. (provisionally-speaking) When whatever people do DOES spill outside their house and becomes an "integral" part of everyone else's lives, it's then I start to take notice...and rightly so.
Now, you have to remember that I lived in Philly, along a street lined with row homes...about 60 per block.
That's a LOT of "other people" to deal with, and little goes on that you DON'T get to hear about.
On our street here in Fort Wayne, we have about TEN houses for the whole block. BIG difference...at least it SHOULD be. Make that EIGHT, because two are vacant (thankfully).
But when ONE or TWO houses become "THE" place to congregate on a more than casual level, that sends up some red flags, given the nature of the "people" living in those houses.
When those houses are the ones that have the MOST noise coming from them, the MOST trash being strewn along the street, and the most unsupervised kids running all over to all hours, well...one tends to notice such things. Add some drugs and a few ambulance calls, and such houses become the types of places that you WANT to keep an eye on, because absolutely no good is coming from them.
Simple, right?
And that's where I prefer to draw whatever line that needs to be drawn.
When THEIR lives infringe upon MY life, that's just not proper behavior, especially when such "people" labor under the assumption that I whole-heartedly WISH to "be included" in whatever nonsense they're involved with.
I. Do. Not. Period.
Leave me the hell out of anything and everything.
I just want to be left alone.
Sadly, such is not the case here.
I am "forced" into inclusion.
I had NO say in it, and have few choices in the matter.
Some who used to live on this block exercised one option...and moved away.
(instead of standing their ground)
And while I can understand them doing it, don't count on me to "want" them sharing a foxhole with me under combat conditions.
The LAST thing I would need at that point would be TWO rifles for only ONE me, hmm? Yes, there is safety in numbers, even when it applies to ghetto vermin.
That's why I find myself woefully out-numbered in that regard.
(hopefully not out-gunned, though)
What I tend to find very disturbing about ALL of this, is that with few exceptions, the city basically seems to have "written off" this part of town. You wouldn't know it when you see all the people down here. Not at first glance.
It's when you look beyond the facade, and behind the curtain, that the truth of the situation bubbles to the surface like the tar pits at La Brea.
The myriad of businesses you find NORTH and WEST of center city is strangely ABSENT from down here.
Someone once said that "ABSENCE makes the heart grow fonder".
Sorry, not buying into THAT...not on a Philly dare!
It's not my "fondness" of the south side that makes my heart beat any faster.
If anything, it's that I'm all but surgically attached to a firearm...just in case. It's not paranoia...it PREPAREDNESS, plain and simple. I want to be prepared for whatever might occur, because the type of people living around us THESE days DO have a propensity and genetic preponderance for acute and violent behavior, all at the drop of a hat.
Be nice if the CITY noticed that.
Now, I said all that to say THIS...
I've shown you pictures of our yard and garden, and although it's small in size, it is sincere.
The Missus and I take pretty good CARE of what we've been entrusted with.
That's just the way we are.
And we make the appropriate repairs to whatever needs mending around here, because, as we all come to learn sooner or later:
"Most things in life have a nasty habit of not fixing themselves."
Yeah, my Dad was good with those sayings.
Now yesterday, the roofer came out for the free estimate, and one thing that caught my attention, was that he didn't try to talk us into a whole roof replacement.
Somehow, the word INTEGRITY came to mind.
Well, this roofing company HAS been in Fort Wayne since the late 1920s, so THAT in and of itself says a lot to me. He suggested a roof repair, as the shingles still had a few years in them. The ones that were damaged were of an "organic" base, as opposed to standard asphalt.
I didn't even know that, so I was quite impressed (hard to do to me at my age).
The repair will be in the low hundreds...a whole roof replacement will cost THOUSANDS, given the pitch of the roof (it is a Cape Cod - at least 45 degree pitch). We might swing with the repair...that way we can get the front steps fixed (or replaced), and manage to nail 2 birds with 1 stone, as it were. (I only shoot at crows, anyway)
That also will free up funds for that property fence replacement along the side -the posts are rotting at the base, and the fence is tied down (for now) to keep from flapping in the breeze like laundry on the line.
That will cost at least a thousand to replace, and will add not ONE PENNY to the cost of our devaluing "estate".
Don'cha just LOVE "equal housing opportunities"?
(Yeah, that WAS sarcasm)
If our city (and it's various departments and personnel too numerous to mention) were to exact at least a TENTH of the "sweat-equity" we involve OURSELVES with when it comes to just our ONE PROPERTY, and apply that to THIS side of town, it wouldn't look the way it does NOW, that's for sure.
And maybe some people down here who are riding the "Apathy-Express" would get the hell off and start doing things to improve the state of this area again.
That's the way it's always been in neighborhoods.
People doing for themselves, and people doing for others.
Notice the word I use is "FOR"...and not "TO".
See, folks around here tend to do things TO themselves and do things TO others, such as robbery, burglary, rape, drug dealing, and such.
That's not going to improve anything one damn lick, and it's certainly not going to bring any new business to the area. Real estate "reps" will continue to steer good people CLEAR of this part of town, because even THEY know the city does little if nothing to IMPROVE it.
But HUD will always want to build MORE, and allow the wrong "clientele" to inhabit their new housing.
Maybe some folks aren't MEANT to live in nice areas...ever think of that?
That's not racist...or even smacking of any type of inequality.
It's FACT.
There are those that have NO idea as to HOW to manage a household...take care of a house, know how to conduct themselves AS homeowners (or as renters living in someone else's house), or how to be a REAL neighbor, and not just someone who happens to live "next door".
The statistics for house fires seems to bear that much out.
Stoves are for cooking FOOD, and not to be used as "auxiliary heating" or for placing an infant into (yes, one deranged "mother" did such a thing and killed her child). And if you ARE cooking, you don't place something ON said stove and them promptly fall the hell ASLEEP!
(We still have "home-ec" classes in school,right?)
Some people are not willing to LEARN what it means to be AN ADULT...and take the time to UNDERSTAND what your responsibilities ARE as that adult. That carries over into the realm of PARENTING as well (even more so). And that brings us all back to my "ghettohood"...
THIS is what we have to deal with daily all around us; people who only pursue things they find entertaining, shiny and loud.
I know full well you can't legislate STUPIDITY (yet), but you sure as hell can TEACH to it.
And these people best learn that they need to either start playing ball...or get out of the game altogether.
THAT is what will save this nation's economy to a large extent, believe it or not.
It's just common sense (as usual).
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.