Saturday, July 19, 2014

Same Street, Different Directions

Let me share two pictures I took this morning walking my dog.  These two photos were taken less than a block away from each other, a few blocks from my house.  I did edit the license plate and neighbor's house number out of the one picture.






First, I really don't know the political preferences of either neighbor.  I can take a guess about the truck one; probably tea-party or pseudo-nuevo-Libertarian, but regardless, they clearly hate Obama.  I have no idea in regards to the flower folks.

The front yard of the truck guy was a mixture of dirt, weeds and grass, obstructed by four cars, two in the driveway, two on the street (including the truck).  One other car in the driveway, an older, rust riddled beauty, also had some over the top, anti-Obama bumper stickers.  The other front yard was not blocked by any cars on the street and there weren't any in the driveway.  The flowers spread from property line to property line, thick and vibrant.  My guess is no one would want to veil the gorgeous summer display by parking their car in front of it.

The houses?  The truck guy has a house more akin to Frankenstein, at one time a tiny little thing, but added too a little here and a there over time.  It didn't look bad, just off.  They have a large front porch, which might be a selling point for the property if it looked nice.  This porch desperately needs some upkeep.  Hanging from the porch, next to an American flag, is a larger Gadsden flag, with three empty beer cans littered about offering evidence of the previous nights activities.  The flower house was not the freshest or prettiest, but it was well kept, testifying that the overwhelming flower display wasn't due to laziness or apathy.  While you couldn't miss the truck guy's house, this house almost disappeared behind the brilliant, natural colors in the yard.

I met someone who was at the truck house once.  Late Spring 2013, I was walking past and struck up a conversation with him.  I asked about how he liked the neighborhood.  It didn't take him long to start taking shots at his neighbors, something he offered freely.  The man, caucasian and around 30, insisted skin color and religion wasn't the problem, but used his own introduction on the subject as a springboard into a litany of stereotypes and derogatory statements.  I made an excuse and got going.

The only thing I know about the flower neighbor is that a few years back, someone complained about the condition of the front yard.  My guess is the trade off to have such a luxurious late June through August pageant means the yard must look bad the remainder of the non-snow covered year.  The issue must have been resolved.

Questions:

Which neighbor would you feel safer with?
Which neighbor looks more welcoming?
Who would you rather have living near your house?



No comments:

Post a Comment

Please feel free to leave a comment. I'll review it and as long as it's not dirty, I'll post it (even if you disagree with me).