I had to go out on the duckling's front porch several times to cut pieces of wood. For example, we used lengths of 2-by-4 to prevent the upper sash from sliding upward and thus spitting out the AC unit.
While out there, a minor verbal altercation erupted between two families on opposite sides of the house.
To set up the visual picture, most of these houses have 4', chain-link fences around the yards and pitbulls with names like Caesar and Pablo Villa running the yard. Caesar took a dislike to me and kept lunging up, trying to get a piece of me. There was only so much room between the house and the fence where I could walk.
I recall thinking that 2-by-4s have many uses and we were out of sight of the porch...but I digress.
Most of the houses had families out on the porch. I think A/C is a novelty in that part of town.
"You know dis ciddy gotta noise ordiance" da one hombre shouted across da street.
Da hombre on the udder side turn down da stereo. "Whachu say?"
"Tanks, manno. Dat betta. I like you music but you godda turn it down."
"Tanks, man" and den the udder guy turn his music back up.
Everybody happy. Everybody respected.
The real measure of the society is the door locks and security measures needed.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved back to the US from the Caribbean, my daughter (who had grown up there) told me after a few weeks that she was homesick and missed seeing all the homes with bars on the windows. Of course there, opportunistic crime is the norm; the police are in the lower strata of society, undermanned, underfunded, still using ledgers. Everything has burglar bars there and sturdy locks, and you have to be aware 24/7, on the lookout for the Bad Johns.
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