Fence Hopping

I have 3 nephews and noticed that boys do the darnest  things when they are little and my son is no exception. I remember that all of my now grown nephews "escaped" from the house when they were little and they all ended up around the corner at the mini market eating ice cream. I remember all the things that their friends told them to do and they did it. Most of those things got them into trouble but nonetheless they did them anyway. I remember my oldest nephews friend grounded from Halloween one year and actually made a "rope" out of sheets and blankets, similar to what you see on an old black and white movie, and climbed out of his bedroom window to go trick or treating when he was 8 years old. Of course, he got caught and got in trouble and couldn't eat any of his Halloween candy that year and was banned from trick or treating for the next year. That next Halloween his parents watched him more closely and there was no sneaking out. Just going to the door to give out candy in his monster costume. 

So, it came as no surprise when yesterday my son did something not so smart. My next door neighbor's house looks like a compound. I kid you not. You can't see his house from the street. It is hidden behind a tall fence and you would have to be a giant to see anything but the few trees that hang over the fence and a couple of flowering plants that hang on the other side. Other then that you can't see anything. From my porch I can see part of his side yard and a sliding glass door and one apple tree. That is it and only because my porch is a little higher then his house. But, just passing by it you might miss it. It reminds me of a house that a celebrity would live in if they lived in this neighborhood. House far from the street  secluded in the back where nobody can see you come and go if you didn't want them too.  I guess he is sort of like a celebrity though since he was on Oprah in the 90's. He wrote some book on diversity or some books on diversity and he gives courses to other people on that subject. One year he had a seminar at this house and passed out flyers that asked the neighbors to be quiet because they were filming it.  So, I guess he is well off, upper middle class and can afford to have a house hidden away from the prying eyes. 

Now, the trouble with that is the neighbor kids, including my son, who like to play ball. Any kind of ball, especially their version of football which involves kicking the ball as well as throwing it. So, you can imagine that the ball has traveled over his fence many times in spite of me telling them to be careful and play not so close to his fence. At first he was nice about getting the balls for them and throwing them over the fence when he was home. I cautioned them, my son and his friends again, and even told them I would take my son's ball away if they couldn't seem to keep the ball on their side of the world. They did good for a while. But, with kids, nothing good lasts for too long especially when you are playing a ball game. 

Yesterday, I heard one of them say, "Oh no." I knew that met only something bad. I went out to see and sure enough not one but two balls had been kicked "accidentally" over the fence and the guy was not home. They agreed to wait until he came home to ask if he could get the balls or if they could get them. That agreement lasted all of ten seconds. I then heard my son's voice calling me. I went to investigate. He was over in the other yard and said he was stuck. I saw him standing up so I said what did he mean stuck. He said he can't get back over the fence. I held back the urge to lecture him on the spot. I said I would save that until we found a way to get him back on the side of fence he was supposed to be on.  It seemed that the way he got over, climbing on top of the garbage can on the other side of the fence was not a good way to get back over because of course the garbage can he used was on the wrong side of the fence. But, he said that his friend who went over in the past said that there was something on that other side that he could climb on to get back.  Of course there wasn't. I told my son to go to the gate in the front of the compound and try to open it. He tried. I tried and neither of us could. I rang the door bell positioned outside of the gate in the hopes that someone might be visiting the man and they might be inside and open the door and the gate. No such luck. 

Then I got the idea of crates. Yes, we had some old crates that my nephew, whom I call, "Fred Sanford" from Sanford and Son the TV show, because he is a junk collector and always has been. If it is at the curb with a free sign he will take it. I went and got the 3 crates and hurled them over the side of the fence where he was stuck and told him to stack them and climb up on them that should give him enough height to hurl his butt back over to the other side. That worked. 

So, when the neighbor got home my son asked him for the crates back. He gave him a puzzled look and my son told him the story. He was nice about it and he asked my son and his friends not to throw or kick any more balls in his yard. I guess he got tired of retrieving them and the crates and being stuck were probably the straw. I figured that much. I gave them all a long talking to about the balls and playing too close to his yard and then told my son to come inside with his balls for the rest of the day because he knew better.  He was not a happy camper and proceeded to wine and beg to go back out and give me and the neighbor an apology but that didn't help his case any and he was grounded for the rest of the day. 

I know that people say that boys will be boys and I guess they are right. But, when I look back when I was his age I hate to admit it but I did almost the same thing. Climbing a fence to get a ball but I didn't get stuck. I guess what they say about apples and trees applies too. 

Tricks and Treats and Births!

I have always enjoyed Halloween although I never really considered it a "real" holiday but when I was little I loved getting dressed up and going out with my sister and cousins getting free candy. Back then there were no cell phones so if we were a tad late coming home we would try to sneak in and pretend that we didn't know what time it was. It didn't work but we tried. Back then my sister and I never brought costumes we always just used what we had in the house and dressed up in whatever and made our own costumes. One year, my aunt and uncle had just come back from Hawaii a couple weeks before Halloween and they brought us back some souvenirs. I got a fake grass shirt, a lay, and a fake flower for my hair so that year I was a hula dancer. I put the skirt on over my pants and all the other stuff on and I was the talk of the neighborhood. I can't remember what my sister was but probably something similar. One year I was a hobo, dressed in old clothes that were too big a little and mis matched. Another year I was a homemaker with curlers in my hair, a robe and tennis shoes. And one year I was just dressed up in my mom's old clothes and called myself a professional woman. Everyone used to say that my costumes were so creative. My father took us out and my mom stayed home. 

So, every year since my son was about 2 we have been going out trick or treating. This year, as in every year since we have moved to this neighborhood almost, we have gone to our old neighborhoods to trick or treat. Because around here there are mostly apartments and businesses and nobody really gives out anything. And we like to go and see how things have changed back in our two old neighborhoods. We only have two that we have lived in since he was born plus this one. So, my son bugs me as soon as he wakes up in the morning about what time we are going and what he is going to bring to put his candy in and he was more anxious then I was at his age. The time finally came, almost. My sister wanted to come and so after work she came over and we went to take her to cash her check and on the road we were trying to figure out where to go. We passed by our first old neighborhood in Albany, CA. Drove down the street we used to live on and they fixed up our old house we used to live in with lights and halloween decorations and it looked really nice. There were a large group of kids already in line trying to get to the door to get some free candy. We decided to do a little more driving. We saw a few more kids out, mostly little kids under 5 and so we made the decision to go to our last old neighborhood north of where we live now.

The street we used to live on at the time we used to live there was filled with kids mostly around the same age as my son was back then. One neighbor used to laugh and say that the neighborhood was filled with 2 year olds. There were a few senior citizens who had been there for years and owned their homes and knew us because at that time we lived in my grandmother's old house and everyone knew her and they always saw us coming and going over the years. So, we were known as Elsie's grand kids and great grand kids. 

Well, we couldn't go trick or treating on that block because it was blocked off and no cars were permitted to go down that street nor were any lights on in any of the houses.  I guess that street was boycotting Halloween. The scrooge of Halloween lived on that street, all of the new people who moved there probably.  I don't know who lives on that block now. The last time we trick or treated that block was two or three years ago but times have sure changed down there. There was only one house that was decorated and that house sat on the corner, not really connected to that street.  I was speechless.  But, I was thinking that was okay we had other houses and places to go to around there. 

We migrated near the little tot park and parked. Now, there they celebrated Halloween like it should be celebrated. Almost every house was decorated with pumpkins and lights and ghosts and it was like a Halloween wonderland. My son was happy and so was I. We got out of the car and proceeded to trick or treat every house we saw decorated and that was a lot of houses. In the first fifteen minutes his small happy meal sized Halloween bucket was almost full. Not only did they give candy away but they gave you more then one. Halloween bliss came over everyone. I was getting ready for my personal sugar high once we got home. I almost got tempted to eat a few bite size snickers bars before we got home but I restrained myself and my son and we carried on.  What we did notice was a lot more families were together trick or treating. I saw a lot of grandmothers and grandfathers going along with the parents of the kids enjoying Halloween just as much as they were. They giggled along with the kids at the sight of all the decorated porches and jumped when they got to houses that played scary Halloween music. They chatted with me about their grand kids and about their memories of Halloween. The parents were busy taking pictures of kids who for the most part were all under 7 and making sure the said thank you after they got their treats. It was nice. Some parents dressed up with their kids. I was not one of those. Even though I enjoy Halloween my days of dressing up I think are gone with the wind.  But, the parents who did dress up were cute. 

We stopped at one house and this older woman opened the door who kind of reminded me of  my own grandmother. She asked my son who he was, which was Naurto, and she asked all about his costume and asked him could he hold on a minute because her 90 year old mother wanted to see his costume. He proudly stood on the porch and waited for her to see him and told her all about his costume and the cartoon which gave him the costume idea.  They talked to him for a little bit and gave him more candy and told him to have a nice night. I think that was the best part about trick or treating, those two ladies who were interested in the stories my son had to tell about his costume. 

On the way home the night just got better. Not because of the boat load of candy that I was secretly plotting on "stealing" some from my son and putting myself on a mini sugar high, which was pretty darn good too, but my sister got a text from her step daughter who said that she had had her baby girl.  So, we had two reasons to celebrate Halloween this year. And next year we will have a new person to take trick or treating with us. It can't get better than that.