rburg
Member
Not to infringe on Charlie's excellent post, I figured I should make a new one.
I live in kind of an oddball place. I really don't have any neighbors across the road except fish (and raccoons.) Thats because its riverbank, and the river is deep and wide. But on my side of the water, we have houses. I'm lucky because behind me there's also nothing for a good, long way. Well, except a catch basin. It filled up once long ago. But its an overgrown thicket that also breeds mosquito's and raccoons. So I've only got a few moron neighbors, and one good one.
The house next to me has been vacant for just over 4 full years. Its been in the same family since 1937 when the big Ohio River flood washed the inner city clean (the most recent time.) The family bought it, the old woman died in 1968 and it went to her son, who lived there for a while before moving to Florida. So it sitting vacant isn't unusual. Normally its just a family flop house, where the son or relative who'd been tossed out or down on his luck can hang out drunk. That all changed 10 years ago.
I was off Jeeping in the desert and when I got home, I had a welcoming committee. My sons were there, waiting for me, and smiling. Obviously up to no good. What they wanted to see was my reaction when told I had a black next door neighbor. Sorry to disappoint them. One of my best neighbors was a black guy down the side street. He was the hardest working fool I'd ever seen. He was fireman, a bus driver on his day's off, and also did a wonderful job of keeping his yard nice. The only thing he didn't do well was keep his wife from having boyfriends. It was easy for the neighbors to figure out. Another black guy parking a block away and trying to sneek down the road. We all knew.
So my reaction to the news was just a blank look. Of course that didn't take long to change, since the new neighbor and his lily white wife had better things to do than go to work, or work in their yard. I grew to hate the guy, if only because he was living the good life while I was slaving away for 60 or 80 hours a week. He had some irritating tendencies. He liked to sit out on his front porch and drink beer, hooting and hollaring (not much different from our home grown hillbillies.) But his habit was to throw the beer bottles on the lawn, his own lawn. I could always tell when his father-in-law sent them some support money. He switched to Michelob bottles. And I learned some new constructive vandalism techniques.
We are helping to support Scotts turfbuilder. But I never use the entire bag of 25,000 sq ft of stuff. There's always some left over. So I just figured I'd help his yard along and distribute some across my fence.
But just over 4 years ago, it all came crashing down. 2 houses down I had a lawyer/idiot. He was nosy and a pain. But he did keep watch on the neighborhood. Through his curtains, sneaking peeks at everything. What he saw was the neighbors oldest girl out behind the next guy down's house. He had a wooded area with a picnic table. That guy and the lawyer got together and discussed it. Turns out the 13 year old girl was meeting someone, and they were stupid and sloppy enough to leave their condoms lying about. More than one, so there were multiple rendevous. The guy who owned the picnic table got all self righteous and said if it were his daughter, he'd want to know. So he marches up the street and tell the black neighbor. OK.
Then the news breaks that "Roy", the black guy will be away for a while. Didn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out it was at state hospitality. Then I discovered our wonderful "KOOL" website, Kentucky Online Offender Lookup". Yep, there was my neighbors smiling face, his indictment, and his guilty plea to 4 sex offenses. With the indictment number, I managed to go to the courthouse and request the case file. They needed a nudge to show it to me, like my insisting I get to see it, or I file an open records request. He was boinking the girl, but she was his step daughter. He admitted to 4 liasons, so he got convicted of 4.
House has been empty ever since. But its supposed to be closing this afternoon to a new buyer. I wanted to buy it and tear it down. Just to control the trash that might move in. But on the plus side, I've been cutting the grass for the last 4 years because it just looks better when cut. Now the new owner can cut it, or I'll distribute double Scotts on the lawn.
When the old guy that owns the place and is selling called me to tell me what's going on, he did mention that the daughter/molestee now has a kid of her own. Not married of course, because the benefits are much better for a single mother. Its a way of life.
I live in kind of an oddball place. I really don't have any neighbors across the road except fish (and raccoons.) Thats because its riverbank, and the river is deep and wide. But on my side of the water, we have houses. I'm lucky because behind me there's also nothing for a good, long way. Well, except a catch basin. It filled up once long ago. But its an overgrown thicket that also breeds mosquito's and raccoons. So I've only got a few moron neighbors, and one good one.
The house next to me has been vacant for just over 4 full years. Its been in the same family since 1937 when the big Ohio River flood washed the inner city clean (the most recent time.) The family bought it, the old woman died in 1968 and it went to her son, who lived there for a while before moving to Florida. So it sitting vacant isn't unusual. Normally its just a family flop house, where the son or relative who'd been tossed out or down on his luck can hang out drunk. That all changed 10 years ago.
I was off Jeeping in the desert and when I got home, I had a welcoming committee. My sons were there, waiting for me, and smiling. Obviously up to no good. What they wanted to see was my reaction when told I had a black next door neighbor. Sorry to disappoint them. One of my best neighbors was a black guy down the side street. He was the hardest working fool I'd ever seen. He was fireman, a bus driver on his day's off, and also did a wonderful job of keeping his yard nice. The only thing he didn't do well was keep his wife from having boyfriends. It was easy for the neighbors to figure out. Another black guy parking a block away and trying to sneek down the road. We all knew.
So my reaction to the news was just a blank look. Of course that didn't take long to change, since the new neighbor and his lily white wife had better things to do than go to work, or work in their yard. I grew to hate the guy, if only because he was living the good life while I was slaving away for 60 or 80 hours a week. He had some irritating tendencies. He liked to sit out on his front porch and drink beer, hooting and hollaring (not much different from our home grown hillbillies.) But his habit was to throw the beer bottles on the lawn, his own lawn. I could always tell when his father-in-law sent them some support money. He switched to Michelob bottles. And I learned some new constructive vandalism techniques.
We are helping to support Scotts turfbuilder. But I never use the entire bag of 25,000 sq ft of stuff. There's always some left over. So I just figured I'd help his yard along and distribute some across my fence.
But just over 4 years ago, it all came crashing down. 2 houses down I had a lawyer/idiot. He was nosy and a pain. But he did keep watch on the neighborhood. Through his curtains, sneaking peeks at everything. What he saw was the neighbors oldest girl out behind the next guy down's house. He had a wooded area with a picnic table. That guy and the lawyer got together and discussed it. Turns out the 13 year old girl was meeting someone, and they were stupid and sloppy enough to leave their condoms lying about. More than one, so there were multiple rendevous. The guy who owned the picnic table got all self righteous and said if it were his daughter, he'd want to know. So he marches up the street and tell the black neighbor. OK.
Then the news breaks that "Roy", the black guy will be away for a while. Didn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out it was at state hospitality. Then I discovered our wonderful "KOOL" website, Kentucky Online Offender Lookup". Yep, there was my neighbors smiling face, his indictment, and his guilty plea to 4 sex offenses. With the indictment number, I managed to go to the courthouse and request the case file. They needed a nudge to show it to me, like my insisting I get to see it, or I file an open records request. He was boinking the girl, but she was his step daughter. He admitted to 4 liasons, so he got convicted of 4.
House has been empty ever since. But its supposed to be closing this afternoon to a new buyer. I wanted to buy it and tear it down. Just to control the trash that might move in. But on the plus side, I've been cutting the grass for the last 4 years because it just looks better when cut. Now the new owner can cut it, or I'll distribute double Scotts on the lawn.
When the old guy that owns the place and is selling called me to tell me what's going on, he did mention that the daughter/molestee now has a kid of her own. Not married of course, because the benefits are much better for a single mother. Its a way of life.
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