Monday, September 9, 2013
New Neighborhood
William Townsend
Honors English II
Per: 8
New Neighborhood
One day on my way home from a long and routine day at school I stumbled upon a surprising new neighborhood. This neighborhood was extremely dull and miserable. The streets were littered with empty alcohol bottles that had been drunk by the local slums of the area. This neighborhood had no houses, but rather it had large buildings consisting of many small apartments that housed the lowest of the low in the city.
Covered by bars or boarded by wood were the windows of these raggedy apartments that reeked pungently of urine and mildew. The smell was so strong that it thickened the air inside the walls of these horrid apartments. The halls in these buildings were annoyingly loud with the shrieks of babies whining for the attention of their absentminded parents that smoked and drank carelessly in the faces of their children. Vicious dogs barked violently as the tried to attack anything within bitting distance of them and the gate they were so tightly leashed to. The people of this rundown neighborhood seemed fixated on bills and how they were going to pay them.
"I can't believe they expect me to pay all this by the end of the month on my minimal wage salary."
"You think you got it bad, please. At least you still got a job I lost my job down at the plant last month, and the bills just keep pilling up," said the unemployed man with the deepest despair in his voice.
"Dang, and I thought it was rough out here for me, but things round here lookin' all jacked up for everybody."
"I know that's right," chimed in a pregnant woman with four kids by her side. The people here had lost every last bit of their hope and it showed in their melancholy facial expressions and lethargic body movement. As I continued to stroll through this depressing neighborhood I soon learned that it was mostly just the adults that dwelled on their problems. The kids seemed rather happy in the less than happy environment around them. The boys played street football in the garbage covered alleys. The girls jumped rope and played hop-scotch on the streets in front of the buildings, while the toddlers drew pictures of what they saw on the sidewalks with big pieces of multicolored chalk. Kids asked each other to join them in activities such as basketball.
"Yo, you wanna go play ball?," said a tall boy that was spinning a basketball on his index finger.
"Yeah, I'll play I hope you ready to get busted," said an equally tall boy as he smugly grinned at his challenger. I observed this neighborhood a little while longer before finally heading back towards home. As I walked home and thought about the unfortunate place I had just visited, I couldn't help but realize that even though those kids had it extremely bad they didn't let it change their moods. They were content with what they had even if it was not much. This neighborhood taught me to be grateful with what I have, because there are people out there without a fraction of what I have.
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