Neighborhood Notes

My family moved to a college town in late 2008. In March this year, we moved to a lovely house just two blocks from campus. It seems strange to me that a developer would build an entire subdivision as rentals. But that is what our rental company did about ten years ago.

One of the repercussions of the economy going bust was that enrollment at the college dropped off and rentals were going unoccupied. The up-side for my family was rental prices also fell. The place we now call home would have been completely beyond our budget if not for that.

I love this house. Not as much as our sweet three bedroom on Catawba of years ago: That place had a full acre of land with a large garden, enclosed front porch and wild blackberries and raspberries abundant in the summer. But if we'd stayed there, our life would be so different. I would still be killing myself commuting all over the state. While I loved the work, it would never have paid well enough to free me from poverty. My husband would be miserable and my daughter would be struggling in a school system that didn't have the resources to help her.

Let me repeat, I love my new house. Four bedrooms, two stories, a two car garage, and a fireplace- all on a corner lot with a small stream at the rear. Being a rental house, it has its issues, but it feels like home.

This month, we are at war with small black ants who think since they own the sandy soil of our lawn already, they deserve our home too. We are winning the war, but the ants have the advantage of unlimited infantry who all seem to have been through kamikaze training. The rental company has been notified, and we have ant baits everywhere, but we still are forced to commit mass insecticide
daily. My husband delights in keeping an ant body count like a combat pilot. He posts his daily kill rate on the dry erase calendar in the kitchen. 202 is his record for a twenty four hour period. His enthusiasm has drawn our daughter into this macabre amusement. Whenever either of them flattens or sprays an ant, they gleefully call out "thirty-eight!" or whatever the current body count. All I can do is shake my head in wonder at the two of them bonding over ant carcasses.

Although our little neighborhood is peopled with many twenty-somethings sharing houses and attending classes, we are not the only family. Because of the University, our block has a diverse population. It is wonderful. I particularly love seeing one of our Muslim neighbors walking, covered in black from head to toe, pushing her baby in a stroller. I also enjoy the Hispanic brother and sister playing across the street, their grandmother sitting in the shade of the porch to keep watch. She and I wave and smile whenever we encounter each other. I only mention race here to illustrate the multi-cultural environment of our community.

I met another neighbor two days ago under unfortunate circumstances. I'll call him "Dan". Dan is red haired, freckled and when I met him, decked out in a Ralph Lauren blue and white striped oxford shirt, creased khakis and loafers. I met Dan while he was in the company of a police officer. Why? Because he and his roommate were the victims of a robbery. The thief (or thieves) went in through the screen of an open first floor window. The officer had come to my house to ask if we'd seen anything. We spoke briefly, and he continued to canvass the neighborhood. Dan sat on his front porch stoop, the torn window screen leaning on the house behind him.

I remembered something odd I had seen and decided to seek out the officer again. By then, he was speaking with Dan again. So, that's how I met "Dan."

Yesterday, another police officer stopped by my house to inform us that Dan's house had been burglarized again, and to ask if we'd seen anything. My daughter had and reported it. I don't know if Dan left his windows open again, but it seems unlikely since the temperatures were over ninety degrees.

My husband is fairly paranoid about security on a good day. These events have forced a hyper-vigilant state for our household. Locking the house even when we're indoors, cell phones at hand at all times. Yesterday, I did alter my plan for the day so that I could remain home. I hope the thieves are caught and soon.

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