One Mom’s Lifesong

So last week I was all worried that everyone on our street would think I was a grouchy neighbor. Turns out I have no worries at all.

Yesterday some of the neighbor kids were out riding scooters, etc and the kids wanted to go out. I met one of the moms (we’ll call her C) on the street that I hadn’t met before and we got to talking. Well apparently I’ve been living in a cocoon because I did not know there was so much drama going on right under my nose.

Seems that the lady on the other end of the street has the police department on speed dial and will call the police to complain about C for whatever reasons – even told them she is fearful of her life. Trust me – C is not at all scary. So I went home later thinking that if the cops did show up at that party then at least they probably assumed it was that lady

Today, around 5 I noticed the kids were out again so we went out. There were kids from 4 different families out all of whom had a parent outside watching. Whenever a car would turn on the street we would make sure everyone was out of the way, etc. Over at C’s house her husband and a couple of his friends stood in the driveway talking. None of the kids went anywhere near Grouchy’s house. (Seem’s C had another run in with Grouchy last night when she called the police and complained that they were being too loud in their garage. The police looked it up in their computer and saw that it was the 4th complaint the lady had called in.)

So today, we’d been out about 30 minutes when 3 police cars pulled in the street – 3!!!! One stopped in front of C’s house. The other two spaced out a little. Grouchy had called the cops and told them that a) the kids were playing in the street unattended b) the men were standing in the middle of the street drinking and c) we were too loud. Wow – none of it was true!

Fortunately one of the officers kind of knew the situation. They talked with the guys for awhile and then left. About 30 minutes later one of the officers returned, parked in front of Grouchy’s house and went in – was still in there when we went inside. Hopefully telling her to stop harassing the neighbors.

Back in the days when hubby was in the military we would spend many an evening at our friends house sitting in their driveway hanging out in lawn chairs. We were generally a quiet bunch, we weren’t playing loud music and there was, at the most, six of us. But Steve and Rubi had a grouchy neighbor who would call the cops and complain about the "noise".  We would be annoyed and the cops would become annoyed when they realize that the "wild party" was six people sitting around talking.

But tonight, I finally became one of THOSE grouchy neighbors. When Noah-7 and I got home around 5 I noticed that there were quite a few cars in the neighborhood – 6 of them in one driveway. As the night when on more and more cars appeared. By Noah’s bedtime you could hear the music inside our house. Every couple minutes he would get up to complain about the noise. We already had the sound machine on in his room, plus the humidifier to try and drown out the noise.

Mark started to call the police but I said that maybe we should go down there and ask them first to turn it down.  But we didn’t and he went to bed with his ear plugs in.

At one point I turned on my front lights and went outside to the one car that was parked in front of our house and asked them to turn the radio down which they did.

But the people kept coming – radio’s going, tires squealing. By 11 p.m. I’d had enough. I confess. I called the cops. I don’t know if they ever did come by or if people just finally went home, but by about midnight it was quiet.

The lady I talked to at the police department took my name, address and phone and asked "Do you want officer contact?"

Um, no, I prefer they NOT know which house the grouchy neighbor lives in!