I love my ghetto neighborhood....

The other day Jaakson and the other neighbor kids were out playing in the front yard and I had taken his red car outside for him to scoot around in. Now, most of the families at the end of our culdesac will bring their toys out and everyone shares and is generally pretty good about making sure the toys stay in the owner's yard or they'll even return the toys after they are done playing with them that day. This particular evening I had to go instruct at the school until 10 pm. I got a text during my class from two different neighbors telling me that they were on a walk with their kids and saw Jaakson's car in someone else's yard a few blocks away. (Jaakson's car is distinctive because of a wheel that's broken.) I say Thanks and decide to check it out on my way home from work. When I get home, I find out from Klint that another neighbor came by and told him that her friend was the one who took it and she's sorry and told him where her friend lived. But when Klint went by earlier that evening, when it was still light out, he didn't see the car. When I went by a lil' before 11 pm there it was, stashed under the outside stairs. So I loaded it up and had half a mind to leave a note on their door that said, "Next time just give me a twenty and we'll call it good...." Of course, I didn't. When I got home and was unloading the car, my neighbor was outside having a smoke with some friends and called out to me, "Sorry for my friend stealing that!" I just laughed and said thanks for the heads up. Anywho, the point I'm making is that I have always joked about my culdesac being "ghetto" and have called it "Felon Cir." We've seen some interesting neighbors in the past year or so we've lived here (the cops used to drive thru regularly) but I really have come to genuinely love every one of my neighbors. I really feel like our lil cul-de-sac is the type of neighborhood where one looks out for the other. We've come together, despite our differences, to try to make it a place that we can raise our families and a place where we can cultivate genuine friendships with one another. Some might look at my cul-de-sac and think "sketchy" and high-tail outta there (I know I did), but I can honestly say had I not lived here, in this specific neighborhood, I don't know that I would have been enlightened or had experienced such signifigant personal growth as I have in the past year. I would not have learned how to truly understand others VERY different from myself in VERY many ways. All in all, I love my "ghetto" neighborhood....