Sunday, December 5, 2004

Exuberance or Misery or Whatever
Hard to say what I'm seeing across the street. Am I seeing a mighty overflow of energy with no sensible outlet? Are those people just wretched to the bone and desirous that the rest of us share their angst? Whatever, it's always something going on over there...loudly. Last night was loud for two reasons; one, a rental unit emptied as the inmates moved their possessions out into a UHaul and finally disappeared over the horizon. Two, the group of eight or so grown men who sit around on busted kitchen chairs and make noise all night every night, well, last night they tossed firecrackers into the street every fifteen or twenty minutes. They kept it up until those who were moving eventually weren't there any more.

The other day some brain dead individul said to me, "You know, I bet that if you waved at those people and called out nice greetings and were friendly, I bet they would be nice right back at you." I bet I'm not going to do any of that.

Now it is Sunday morning again and once more I am drop dead tired after being up almost all night hearing those morons carry on. What do they do besides throw fire crackers? Uh, yes, they have an extensive menu of weird noises made to just hear themselves make noise. One guy makes a noise like WOOF WOOF WOOF..... Another yells the F-word as loudly as a boiler factory blowing up...he does this about twenty times in a row, then shrugs and sits back down for a while. Another one has his own version of a Tarzan yell. Between noises, as the night passes on, they sit doing nothing, or suddenly for no apparent reason jump up and run down the sidewalk as if urgently needed somwhere, but turn before the end of the block and straggle slowly back to their seats. Sometimes they generate a little war over nothing, jumping up and down like monkeys and shouting into each others' faces, all bouncing around in a bunch, bobbing up and down and noise pouring out of their mouths. Once in a while they go too far and one actually gets mad. I saw a gun come out one night, aimed at a man's head. The potential shooter stood that way for a while as they all froze, then he shrugged and put the gun back into his pants pocket. One night there were two shots after one of those jumping and yelling sessions and the police and an ambulance came, women wailed and screamed...somebody REALLY got carried away. Mostly it's just noise. The thing is, that's how it is every night.

Night before last some goon with the most broken-down pick-up truck on this planet, stopped and unloaded his whole trash collection onto the sidewalk in front of them, CRASH, SLAM, KAPLOWIE!!! He did that around 3:00 A.M. They just watched him, didn't seem to care that their viewing place had turned into Fort Trash. They actually had to stand up to see out to the street over the wall of junk. THE NOISE it made!

And the question arises, is this behavior an outlet for energy which has nowhere else to go? Is it a case of miserable people making everyone within earshot as miserable as they are? Is it just plain insanity? Don't know. I do know that once again it is Sunday morning when I am going to help with the little kids at church and I am so tired I can hardly hold up my head. Doesn't seem right. "If you would just begin to greet those people and wave hello and so on, I bet they'd respond positively." That was said by somebody who lives on the other side of town. Here's what I would like to do and can't for lack of the necessary abilities: I would like to walk over there when they get rocking and rolling and pick up one of them, sit down, lay him over my lap and say, "You want to make noise at night? I'm going to help you. When I get done, you will be making the noise of your wildest dreams," and then bust his butt like he hasn't felt since Momma quit trying. Then grab another one and so on until they get the idea that if they are going to yell, they better be in pain already because if not, I'm going to fix that. No, I can't. They are grown men and I am a little old lady, but it's an attractive prospect, is it not? You don't think so? What I have to say to you is, living on 38th Street is not for the weak. I bet you couldn't do it. I'm doing it, but I'm tired.

Posted by doubledog at 11:37 AM | Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink
Updated: Sunday, December 5, 2004 3:50 PM

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