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I live in a Rust Belt city that lost half of its population when the factories closed in the 1980s. The population that remains gets by on disability and welfare checks and dealing heroin, which has led to a lot of overdoses in town and a lot of broken families.
Since the pandemic, the middle school near my house has been closed, but the unsupervised kids of the neighborhood still gather there. It’s led to a bit of hooligan behavior on my block, like when a little girl wrote blue graffiti across the outer wall of my house. I complained to her mom that I can’t get it off to no avail.
Since my surgery 2 years ago I’ve been able to walk without a cane for the first time in 8 years. I can’t get to physical therapy during the pandemic, so walks to that school and back have kept me going.
Today on my walk on my block a middle school aged kid on a bike started playing chicken with me on my sidewalk. On his first pass, I was able to dodge his bike. But on the second pass he came straight at me down my sidewalk from uphill a block away. That time there was nowhere for me to go on the sidewalk. I had row houses blocking me to my left and a wall of parked cars to my right.
He hit me straight on to my right side. He seemed surprised when taking me down meant I fell on top of him so he went down in the crash he caused, too. It was as if he thought he could run right over me and just bike away laughing. When he knocked me down on top of him instead, he seemed upset as if I had been the one at fault.
After he got up and pedaled away with no apology, I decided I’ll have to walk somewhere else from now on. I’m hoping I don’t get a knock on my door from an angry parent blaming me, as if an old man like me could catch up to a kid on a bike to begin with. I worry that I may get a notice in the mail from his parent’s lawyer suing me for throwing my body in his son’s bike’s path. That’s the kind of down and out town I live in.
Meanwhile, after 10 years in my place I don’t feel safe living there any more. After the 2016 election, it was my car that got vandalized 5 times, right in my driveway. Then the kid’s graffiti on my house. Now it’s touched me.
91 days and I retire to Mexico.
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Hey All...I hope that you have a lovely, peaceful beginning of your weekI have a bunch of chores that need doing but may put them off til tomorrow and just hang out with my landlord/roomie todayWhat about you?...Anything special going on?Have a great day and take good care of you!!..Xo
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Once again I've had a fever today. I'm not going to the hospital because that's a huge waste of time but I did schedule a dr appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
Take gentle care of you now,alright?
Friendship,Prayers&Support
I’m sure it’s not all like that, many great places to live too.
From what I’ve read and heard if you go to the right place in Mexico you will be actually safer as you get older.
Please stay safe and well for the next 3 months until you can get out of there. I’m safe here until I go into the problem riddled age care system, but would love to age in pre COVID Mexico. It’s only my soul that’s dying here. The world has changed too much unfortunately.
I’m counting down with you and will have to have my Mexico experience vicariously with you.
Honestly, I'd worry less about the paint. We've had a surge in "juvenile delinquency" here too. With schools closed, it's crazy how much energy the kids are spending on mayhem and some weird games made up in their heads. I am all for imagination, but reality is, OUCH!
Purrs of healing.
Nasty little bugger!!.... I think that there's been a lot of different abuse and tempers flaring unfortunately..... xo
As for why Mexico? A. Like a lot of members of the USA's middle class, even though I've contributed to a retirement pension all 40 years I've been a teacher, I can't afford to retire in my own country, the USA. B, Lucky for me, I grew up in Mexico and Uruguay as a missionary kid. Uruguay's cost of living is like that of the USA, but Mexico's cost of living is half as much, so that's why I've rented a house there I'll be headed to as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and the border is opened.
Back to the boy on that bike that ran over me, I hope my new walking route puts safe distance between us and if his uncle is my landlord his uncle isn't into reprisals. I'm kind of worried about that.
I hope you start feeling better soon & the soreness gets better too.
Gentlest of hugs <3
I took a route in the opposite direction away from where the bike riding kid lives to be safe. Hope my knee holds up for a second walk later on.
In 90 days when I retire back to where I grew up in Mexico I'll be safer. My house is on the grounds of a convent behind a locked gate; the mother superior is my landlady. And though families are poor, they are multigenerational like Hispanics tend to be in the same home Due to their being no nursing homes due to poverty, grandparents watch the kids while their parents work, kind of like it was back when in the USA on the tv show The Waltons. It's hard for Mexico to be underdeveloped, but some exceptions to being behind in modern life aren't bad, sometimes it's ok to be old fashioned and traditional.
When I was a kid growing up in Mexico, both of my US citizen parents worked there, so a childless couple next door adopted me when I was 7. I learned to swim there, to ride a bike, and to speak Spanish, which gave me my Spanish teaching career back here in the USA these 40 years.
Looking forward to retiring back to Mexico now in 90 days, where I can afford to live on my US pension and I can be safe.