28 2002 |
When I was younger, there was an older man who lived on the corner of our block. He sat out on his front step almost all day long, visiting with anyone who went by & chatting with the neighborhood kids. I didn't talk to him much, but he was nice to everyone and that's how he passed the time in his autumn years. His house had an apartment on the back of it, and in it lived a woman who yelled at you if you rode your bike on the grass of the property that she didn't own.
Des' daycare has a small public park down the street from it, and they often visit during the day. Other than proximity, the reason daycare visits is because there's playground equipment fit for toddlers to play on, unlike most public parks.
However, at least according to my daycare, there's a hateful woman living there who despises the children that visit the park. She has made threatening calls to the daycare, she has asked the Fargo Park Board to rip out the park, and she has sprayed the daycare kids with water and yelled at them.
Everyrone is entitled to an opinion, but how sad for a lady to treat the happiness of children as a blemish on her neighborhood. Life is what you make of it, no matter how close to your own death you are. Be like the guy on the front porch, open to the world, adsorbing the happiness that's out there. Were this woman at the park to go out and throw around a ball with the 4 and 5-year olds, her entire day would be brightened. Instead, she peeks out from between pulled shades, taking notes on whether the children throw sticks on her lawn or not.