What do you do when the neighbourhood teenagers decide that the area right outside your front door is the cool place to hang out? When they start inviting their mates so the crowd just grows and grows? Whooping and squealing, boys trying to impress girls, lasses leading on the lads… when they’re out there for hours and hours and they just won’t leave you alone? The whirr and slam of skateboards, the incessant bouncing of balls, the taunting laughter.
Do you confront them? How do you think that will go down? They’re teenagers: they live for confrontation.
Do you try to find out who their parents are and approach them directly about it? You can try, and sometimes the parents might pretend to turn a sympathetic ear… but nothing will change. Chances are, they’re just glad the kids aren’t outside their house, so they can get a bit of peace and quiet for a change.
Do you call the police? Once, the neighbourhood bobby would have come round and put the fear of god into them… but there aren’t any neighbourhood bobbies anymore, and kids certainly aren’t scared of them. And if you put in an official complaint, did you know that’s something you have to declare when you finally decide to sell the house and clear out of that neighbourhood? Not really something you want on your Rightmove page, is it?
When the first Lockdown came, it brought a few weeks of relief. Silence. Peace. But by then, we’d had enough anyway. And by May they were back, anyway. Full of pent up piss and vinegar after being forced off the streets for so long. Back with a vengeance.
I’m just writing this down to get it out of my system. You don’t have to read it. Have another great album from 2020 instead…
I’m hardly an expert on The Waterboys’ back catalogue, beyond the obvious bus stops, but Mike Scott’s latest album is a definite grower. I was drawn in by the wonderful Dennis Hopper, but there are plenty of other delights, including a couple of spoken word tracks that stick in my mind and a nice slab of brass on the opening track…
Sounds horrendous, Rol (your experiences I mean, not the Waterboys!)
ReplyDeleteGlad to know you're out of there now, it seems unlikely it was ever going to get better. A horrible and difficult situation for all the reasons you state... I'd go out of my mind.
Before we moved here the neighbours from hell moved in across the landing of Mrs CCs flat.
ReplyDeleteLoud music, dogs peeing in the close, broken windows the lot.
It did encourage us to accelerate selling our respective flats and buy our current house so I suppose there was one positive
Just read your previous post and now this one - That sounds horrendous Rol so totally understand how you have moved. Good luck with the neighbourhood kids in the new house. I suspect you were just unlucky.
ReplyDeleteOur holiday let is just a stone's throw away from our house so we thought it would be fine but the garden it backs onto seems to be the meeting place for the owner's son and his friends. Terrified to say anything as you say and the owner is someone who bullied Mr WIAA at school so all these years later he still gets the heebie-jeebies when he sees him. Funny how these things stay with you.
Thanks for the heads up re these albums - I do like The Waterboys as you know so I should investigate further.
Haven't followed the Waterboys since the '80s. This has me curious.
ReplyDeleteLife's too short to deal with that situation. Glad you got out of there.