I come from a simple enough neighborhood. It's actually the largest one in Louisiana. I remember when I was younger all "Nate", "B", Ivory, "Big Calix", "Little Calix", Eddie, Kevin and I would play sports until either the sun went down and it got so dark we couldn't see or a torrential downpour began. Oh, but times they are a changing. Over the course of the 90's, my neighborhood began to deteriorate due to someone's bright idea of putting low income housing into an already established neighborhood. Now I'm not going to typecast and say that everyone in the APARTMENTS that were built in the front of my neighborhood but truth be told if I had my way that blight would have never been built. This brings me to my point, I got a phone call this morning from my oldest sister about my oldest nephew. He stole my mother's car and did some damage to the front fascia. Now I'm sure a few people that will read this have stolen their parent's car (I can't say that I have) but this is simply the latest in the saga that seemingly makes my nephew's life looks more like a rapper's than a kid that is growing up in the suburbs.
He's stolen money from his mother. He's stolen money from his aunt. He's stolen money from my father. He's been caught with an ounce of weed that he says he was trying to "come up off of" because he wanted to buy some Timberland boots. Now he's guilty of grand theft auto. With the exception of him stealing from his mother all of this has taken place over the course of this year. Since February in fact. It would seem asthough the element that I detest has been hibernating right under my nose in my own family for the past 14 years (15 years next Monday). What sucks the most is that he doesn't even have a good reason to do what he's done, it's not like he's one of 10 and his mother is a quadrapalegic. He comes from a stable home. His mother and father aren't together but they support one another. What's the cause of these wayward actions? I mean everyone has done their dirt it just seems like my nephew is really beginning to look like Pigpen.
