But that doesn't mean it's pretty.... One only needs to watch an episode of The Walking Dead to see that! But I want to talk abou an uglier decay that I see around me: the decay of a home.
The house next door to mine was at some point purchased and/or built by my grandmother's cousin, as a thank-you gift to my great-grandmother for having raised him in his earliest years. After she moved to live with my great-aunt, it was sold to the parents of my mom's bestie.... so in a way, it stayed in the family (or so it felt).
A good bit of my childhood was spent in that house and in that yard. It was among several of my homes-away-from-home. I knew its interior as well as my own home. I spent hours in the "Florida room" (as Granny B called it) weaving potholders on a metal loom, and playing grocery store in the pantry with the great-grandchildren.
When Granny B died, my heart sank. I didn't know what would become of her house. There were some nice renters for a few years, then they sold the house to a young married couple -- in fact, a classmate of my brother. She and her husband did a lot of work and made the house beautiful! It didn't look the same as it did in my childhood, but they made it look awesome.
But then they moved, selling the house to a young single mom. When she lived there, things were great. When she didn't and became a landlord, not so much. She came back after a few years with a new husband and kids, and things again were good while they occupied the house......
They once again became absentee landlords, and the house -- to put it mildly -- fell to hell. A caved-in, decayed, rotting heap of wood and siding. Miss Havisham would even say, "Oh, this is just too much, I can't even...."
And I am saddened beyond belief. The absentee landlords allowed it to go into foreclosure. And while you might get it for a song, it would be a nightmare to rebuild and remodel. The Scott twins (Property Brothers) would even walk away from this one. I would want the property myself for sentimental value but only as an addition to the current property. Fence that baby in and give Maddox free reign.
But it's sort of indicative of how neighborhoods have changed since my childhood. When I was a kid, we knew everyone on the street (for good or bad) and within a couple of blocks too. And now? I know the Queens (diagonal to us, sweet young family) and the Wilsons (two houses down, known them for years). We know Chris & Lynn, daughter of my mom's bestie, who moved back to her childhood home when her dad's dementia got worse. We know the MacRae's who go to church with me. We still know a few of the old families from around a couple of blocks. But I'd be hard-pressed to give you any other names. We don't know the neighbors and they don't know us. Sad.....
But such is the decay of old neighborhoods and old homes in a very mobile society.
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