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September 10th, 2000

There Goes The Neighborhood

Who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neigh-bor-hood?

It’s almost funny to me that this question seems so appropriate now. Who are the people in my neighborhood? When I was a kid growing up, I knew almost everyone who lived on my street, up and down the block. Families, old folks, young folks, fellow kids I hung out with, kids I hated, and so on.

People started moving away in what seemed like droves. A lot of the kids moved, and then the adults. Now the only neighbor I know really well is next-door. The rest? I dunno. There’s the family three doors down that has loud parties all night every night, wakes me up, and lets their dog run throughout the neighborhood. There’s the house across the street that has hosted many a party and once taped naked films right in the front window. A halfway house down the block that used to belong to a family friend. And one of the kids who used to be a punk… is now a punk with a loud stereo in his car.

It’s kind of sad in a way, but it seems like the whole neighborhood just closed up. I can’t help but wonder if this is the case elsewhere. Suburbs pack people in so tightly that it seems very funny to me that we might not know the people next door, upstairs, downstairs… all so close by. Do you know the people in your neighborhood? -pm

Posted in Miscellaneous

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