Sloppy Neighbors

Neighborhood demographics in the United States are pretty uniform. Most have well manicured, watered lawns, nice shrubs...that sort of thing. When you drive down a street in most middle class neighborhoods you see uniformity. People tend to their property to make it look good because their house is usually their biggest investment. It just makes sense to not be a slob.  But among those lovely lawns and gardens there is. The jerk in the neighborhood whose house is an island surrounded by overgrown lawns with weeds everywhere, objects (trash) strewn about and dying gardens that are gasping for water and attention.

No matter how nice the street looks there is bound to be at least one ugly/non attended home. Most often those slobs who allow their lawns to fall into neglect also have junk of one sort or another sitting in front of their property. Those boats and camper trailers that are too often parked in front of the house are examples. And why do people put up Christmas lights but leave them up all year round? It's odd that any human be too lazy to take them down after Christmas is over.  Sometimes those boats and campers also appear to be locked into place. They never move from their spots because the home owner thinks his or her house is also a boathouse or trailer park.. I guess they seem to never move those things because if a person is too indifferent or lazy to take care of their lawn they are also probably are too lazy to use their boat or camper.

I am lucky because at present I have no lawn jerks near my own house. I think the higher affluence of my street makes that the reason. People who have the money to spend on taking proper care of their property usually don't neglect it. There is a kind of  "I don't want to be the jerk on the street who lives like a slob" mentality because it should be embarrassing to be that. I wish that mentality would be transferred to the other slobs in other neighborhoods. But then, a homeowner has the right to be a jerk if he or she wishes. Strangely, when the street jerk lists his or house for sale the property suddenly is cleaned and lawn attended.  This is affirmation that when money is at stake all homes look nice and all street jerks become respectable.

You can usually judge the quality of the person by how responsible he or she is in caring for their property. That's because, caring is not mandatory, but when one does take care of it says, "I respect others in the neighborhood, so I will make an effort to show it by not living as if I don't care" Well, Ben Franklin once wrote that "Good fences make good neighbors."  I wonder if someone in Ben's neighborhood had a boat and camper parked in front of his house.