TGIF

I normally don't care one way or another whether it is Friday, but today is different. We are visiting a friend Michelle and her hubs William in Center Valley again tomorrow.  They head back to Texas in a few days and a big north eastern BBQ is taking place in their honor, and his family has invited us. We were told they very rarely invite outsiders into their home. I wonder if it has to do with being from NYC. The neighborhood they were brought up in? My mom was the say way.

My family moved from the trailer out back of my father's parents in Fort Worth, and into a duplex (one bedroom) neighborhood. My sister had not been born yet, and our house was next to a church. Much of the neighborhood was mixed with twenty percent Caucasian, forty percent Hispanic, and forty percent African American family's, and the elderly of all three. I don't remember it being a dirty or trashy place, but remember the night our neighbor called late at night to tell my mom someone was coming through the window over my sister's and I's bed. Crime had began to grow all over.

It was summer. Today I read that the rising heat is causing crime to go up (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20). People will grow increasingly irritated and angry, mixed with heat, it may cause people to become violent. That fall my parents moved into a safe ticky tacky suburb where it took thirty years for crime to find them again. You can move, but it finds you. Crime crime crime.

The memory moves me to 1979, when I was robbed at gunpoint, and by a man wearing a ski mask and dressed all in black. I remember the gun he used to rob the 7-11 I worked during college. The cops were curious how I was so sure. My father had all sorts of guns to protect us, and for his own hunting pleasure. We also enjoyed firing them at the river bottom. We as in my sister and brother and I when given the opportunity. In some way we are all criminals to others. But the difference to the violent of other human beings, the ability to respect others property and lives. I've killed fish, insects, and a tree limb or two, but robbing another of their respect is not on my to-do list.

At times I wish there were funds for fire arms and target practice, but honestly I would not want one in my home. That is what concealed paring knives are for. Joking, but if there was a chance at a circus job throwing them, I might run away and join.

My sister often shares her fears of the same topic. Her boyfriend slash common law husband owns a house in a very up and coming rough gang infested neighborhood. She hears guns pop off, night after night. She too has been robbed, but only when they are away. Recently a window was smashed in, and the police were told by a neighbor who did it, but they have not even tried to question the locals. Alfonzo owns guns, but she too doesn't feel safe from knowing they are loaded and ready, and laying about the house. It's hotter in Texas than it is here in the north east where I now live, but crime exist all over. People what shall we do it is only July and the heat is only going to go up!

Thank God It's (this post) Over! you are saying about now, right? Thoughts can go array, just like bullets.

I'll be arriving at my friends family house with loaded pans, and tons of respect.  The only thing I plan on killing any time soon is a pitcher of lemonade...with a splash of vodka! I'm on my way out to look for some really good water guns to pass out at the party.