Fireworks

It is DRY in Small College Town this summer. I say this because my idiot neighbors in the more-upscale neighborhood behind my own (!!!) were setting off HUGE illegal fireworks, leaping over their house and landing on the dry tree line that separates my yard from theirs. Any fireworks that leap into the air are illegal in this part of the world. Note the time now: this started just before Midnight. Wife was awakened, and I had been snoozing as well.

So, like a good citizen I called the county sheriff. No, I don't have the exact address: it's dark out and I live on a different street. Why the neighbors up on that street didn't call, I'll never know. (These neighbors have disturbed the neighborhood before: blasting a note on a trumpet at 1AM, setting off fireworks the past two summers. At 8:30 PM tonight, a chain-saw noise was coming from this house when Son was going to bed. Who in the world ARE these people?)

The fireworks continue when I'm on the phone with the dispatcher. After hanging up, I get into my car and drive over there myself, curious if I'd actually see anything. My blood is mildly percolating.

I find a kid at the foot of his driveway, not more than 11 or 12 years old, with a HUGE firework in hand. I informed him the fireworks had awakened my family, was creating a fire hazard, and I had called the sheriff. My tone of voice wasn't as pleasant as that last sentence reads, nor was the language as eloquent. He said, "Sorry," like he didn't mean it very much, and then shouted to someone I couldn't see in the garage to say the police were coming. An "adult" male voice in the garage said "OK we'll stop."

Across the street, a car is parked in another neighbors driveway that says "County Fire Department." Nice. Why in the world THAT person didn't do something about this, I'll never know. I'd be surprised if they didn't hear the noise.

You know, when I was 11 or 12, I was asleep at midnight unless I had a group of friends staying over and we'd be up watching movies or bad late-night TV. This situation tonight was depressing. I shudder to think about home life for that kid.

And why was I the one who made the call when this was happening practically in the middle of another street where a fire-fighter apparently lives??

I guess it's a sad comment on citizenry and society today. Why my neighbors cannot respect each other, and also watch out for each other, I'll never know. It could be a phenomenon in this neighborhood, but I wonder if it's a change in our society in general? When I was a kid, the neighbors were our friends. We watched out for each other. We played together. We didn't do things to each other that was disruptive in the middle of the night: that was left to a group of obnoxious kids or the rare criminal. But the homeowners themselves and their families? Dogs don't defecate in their own spaces, so why would a resident mess up his own neighborhood?

Perhaps Chester could teach my neighbors, and even our society, a lesson or two.