Thanksgiving

I suppose my Thanksgiving started like yours. I started by making my favorite food fresh cranberries. Followed up by my first attempt at a pumpkin pie. Last nights pecan pie wasn't quite the success I wanted a little over cooked but hopefully edible. This morning's pumpkin pie was a little runnier than I would have liked but seemed to shape up ok. Funny thing with pie is there is no way to know for sure until you cut into it. I might be a failure but won't know for sure until I present them to my whole family later today. Hopefully not.

So my favorite thing for Thanksgiving morning is to watch the the Macy's day parade. Not really the parade but the Broadway show actors that highlight songs and dancing before the parade starts. It is really to fill the space in front of Macy's for the hour it takes for the parade to get to that spot. But always ends with the Rockettes another favorite of mine. All of these homey moments brought to you by Hallmark or something like that was interrupted by kids outside.

Now these neighborhood kids are not the children or grandchildren of my neighbors. These kids are residents at a group home. The house has been a group home the entire time we have lived here and has changed the types of kids that have lived here over the years. When we first moved in it was runaway kids and foster kids needing a place to stay. Sometimes just until their parents picked them up and others much longer. Back then the man that ran the house was very involved and Brian and I would make donations when we could of items they needed. Sometimes that was games and toys or books. Sometimes it was sharing a few moments on Christmas morning with kids that didn't have anywhere else to be and no one else to be with. We would get them a new set of pajamas and a backpack full of things that kids normally have. They each got their own. Some of my best Christmas moments with kids were spent with kids that I don't know their names or what happened to them next. I just wanted us to be a positive moment for kids that don't have a lot of positive in their lives.

Later the home changed to housing teenage pregnant girls again. When we could we would share things with the girls. This was fun to buy nail polish, fluffy socks and things teenage girls would enjoy. Well last year when the government shutdown the house lost their funding and closed. It sat empty for probably 6 months. Then we started to see the stirring of people around the house but this time things are different. Mostly boys now I don't know what they are there for but they seem to have quite a bit of trouble at the house because almost daily we have a squad of police cars in front of our house. Now in the beginning we would have the police usually dropping off runaways a safe place for them until their parents could pick them up. But now the police are coming to arrest kids. I don't know what for but in the last couple months it has been daily events of police cars, paddy wagons and ambulances.

Our neighborhood is not very neighborly most of the people that live on our street are renters of duplexes, some houses are empty and even after more than 15 years we only know a few neighbors.
So back to this morning and the boys out front smoking in front of my house. It frustrated me because one of the adults that works at the house walked out and was watching but since the boys were in the street he didn't do anything. After a few minutes I walked outside and asked what they were doing. The two younger boys went back across the street and the older stood there and smoked. He didn't care. I get it he is 18 but the adults running this place have no control and clearly these kids have no respect. The best the adult could say was that lady is going to call the cops. So now it is my fault that these kids are going to get in trouble.

I have asked the police about the house and what is going on and Brian has joked that they might as well have a sub station there. We have now found out the name of the company that runs the home. I will be making a phone call on Friday. But while I took a shower this morning. You know that is where my best thinking comes. I thought I need to spin this in a positive way. Not for the company but for the kids. My interest is selfish. I want to be safe at my home but I also don't want these kids to believe all adults are the enemy. They also need to believe that they can make their situation better.

Who am I to believe I have any idea what these kids are going through. I can only imagine what these kids think of the world. In times of tragedy like after Hurricane Katrina I told Brian I can't watch anymore of the suffering if I am unable to help. So here I stand in my own house and I look out the window seeing these kids and the only reason to lash out like this is that no one has shown them a better way. Or if they have they haven't shown them that they are capable of changing their ways.

So I am going to make a phone call not to complain but to try to fix this problem. If whomever this group is that is running the house is interested in fixing the problem. I will help them find a way but if they aren't well. Then I will have to work a different direction. But these kids aren't going to think of the lady across the street to be the one that calls the cops. I will also not stop the cops from doing their jobs. I taught some of the girls that many years ago when I helped.

Those moments make differences. Maybe not today. But one day some of these kids will remember that there was a positive influence in their lives and there was someone to show them the way to a better future for themselves and my little corner of the world.