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Troubling Times
May. 2nd, 2006 04:40 pmI had a disturbing experience last Tuesday, which drove home just how much the neighborhood has declined in twenty-some years. When we moved to Huntsville, our little hillside was mostly retired folks, with one or two younger couples with children, and the house behind ours was a rental property (with a grouchy landlord who mowed down our gardens because he thought the property line was a lot further in than it really was - to be fair, it wasn't as far the other way as we thought, but he still shouldn't have been mowing *our* lawn). Well, last Tuesday I went to get the oil change I'd been putting off for a variety of reasons. It went well enough, though they did recommend I get the tires rotated/balanced/aligned (which will cost more) so I'll have to think about getting that done before I drive to NJ in a couple of weeks. I really like the guys there (Express Oil Change on Sanderson, down by Madison Square Mall); they've helped me many times over the years, and I trust them. Getting $3 off an oil change on "Ladies' Day" Tuesdays just because I'm a girl is nice, too;)
I'd intended to swing by Wal-Mart before I went home, but I forgot, so I was minding my own business driving home, and happened to pass a red newish-looking sedan of some kind just as I was approaching the side street that leads to my house. I wouldn't have paid any more attention to it, and probably wouldn't have remembered it, if it weren't for what happened next. The red car (with 4-5 black guys in it) was in the right lane, having just pulled out of the gas station (or maybe just turned the corner) so I zipped past in the left lane before pulling into the left turn lane. Oncoming traffic was clear, so I kept going up the street toward my driveway, and just before I turned left into the drive I checked the rearview (just to see if I needed to turn on my blinker - the street is only about 200 feet long overall) and found that the red car was right on my bumper. I was right there at the driveway, so I pulled in quickly, and sat in the end of it looking around at them. They stopped in the middle of the road, then turned into the neighbor's driveway just enough to turn around and go back to the main stretch and disappear down the road.
Did they leave because I was in the driveway? Because my brother's dog was running around barking his head off? Because there were a lot of cars in driveways that made it apparent there were people around? And why did they follow me, anyway? Road rage? Because I was a girl alone in a car?
I don't know, but it was unsettling.
Once upon a time, the pizza places wouldn't deliver to our house because they were under the mistaken impression that our street was just off Mason Court (for those who aren't local, that's The Projects, officially named "Sparkman Homes" and known for drive-by shootings and other criminal troubles) but now it looks like the troublesome folks are working their way up the road. The gas station/cigarette shop on the corner barred and boarded up most of their windows when they took over that space; I used to think they were overreacting.
I need to build up enough income to move...
I'd intended to swing by Wal-Mart before I went home, but I forgot, so I was minding my own business driving home, and happened to pass a red newish-looking sedan of some kind just as I was approaching the side street that leads to my house. I wouldn't have paid any more attention to it, and probably wouldn't have remembered it, if it weren't for what happened next. The red car (with 4-5 black guys in it) was in the right lane, having just pulled out of the gas station (or maybe just turned the corner) so I zipped past in the left lane before pulling into the left turn lane. Oncoming traffic was clear, so I kept going up the street toward my driveway, and just before I turned left into the drive I checked the rearview (just to see if I needed to turn on my blinker - the street is only about 200 feet long overall) and found that the red car was right on my bumper. I was right there at the driveway, so I pulled in quickly, and sat in the end of it looking around at them. They stopped in the middle of the road, then turned into the neighbor's driveway just enough to turn around and go back to the main stretch and disappear down the road.
Did they leave because I was in the driveway? Because my brother's dog was running around barking his head off? Because there were a lot of cars in driveways that made it apparent there were people around? And why did they follow me, anyway? Road rage? Because I was a girl alone in a car?
I don't know, but it was unsettling.
Once upon a time, the pizza places wouldn't deliver to our house because they were under the mistaken impression that our street was just off Mason Court (for those who aren't local, that's The Projects, officially named "Sparkman Homes" and known for drive-by shootings and other criminal troubles) but now it looks like the troublesome folks are working their way up the road. The gas station/cigarette shop on the corner barred and boarded up most of their windows when they took over that space; I used to think they were overreacting.
I need to build up enough income to move...