Teenage Wasteland

In the wee village I live in, the kids and few teenagers that live here can’t help but become mischievous while trying to pass the time.  In the five years that I have lived here I have been victim to littering on my lawn, bottles stolen off my deck, my car broken into, children “canvassing” for various causes only looking to get a few bucks out of you, and some good old fashioned Nicky Nicky Nine Door.  Let me briefly touch on the last one for a minute.  The other evening around 9:00 while the sun was still fairly high in the sky, a young boy approached my doorstep.  I commented to my husband that someone was coming to the door.  We both watched him approach our door; knock twice, ring the door bell, and then take off like a shot out of the yard.  I could not believe what had just happened!  We had just been Nicky Nine doored, in the middle of broad day light!  Where was this kid’s game plan?  Not only did he choose a lousy time of day but his hiding place was directly across the street in front of my house behind a truck.  I was out the door before he could crouch down out of sight. He remained hidden while I waited at the edge of my property.  Finally after some time he and a girl popped up as if nothing had happened and started to walk away.  I immediately confronted them. They had an interesting story that went something like this: “the kids that knocked on your door ran that way (he pointed down the road).  When we saw them running we hid because we thought you might think it was us.”   I give him props for a good cover but I informed the boy that I actually witnessed the event and was standing in the window a few feet away from him when he did it.  I told him I was not angry (and I wasn’t) but my child was sleeping and they should be more considerate of those things.  They sheepishly walked away.  I suspect my house will be egged on Halloween. 

It is so interesting the transition we make from adolescents to full on adult.  I think back to when I was a teenager and how self absorbed I was.  I never considered what hard work went into putting in the garden of peas I raided in the middle of the night while walking with my friends.  I never thought the garden gnome or plastic deer was a prized possession to someone as I threw it in the back seat of my car while on a scavenger hunt.  And I certainly never batted an eye as I rang someone’s door bell in the middle of night, getting some poor family out of bed, and traipsing across a beautifully manicured flower bed in my escape.  The fact of the matter is we don’t know the effects of our actions until we experience them first hand as an adult.  It is hard to judge teenagers or even children in their foul play when we were just like them!  I remember being a teenager and looking at my parents and thinking how lame they were; tending to their plants, in bed by nine, and decorating their houses.  I remember my cousin and me walking in on our parents one Friday night lying on the carpet candling their ears and thinking, “You all need to get a life”.    Now as an adult in my mid thirties, teenagers even “kids” ten years younger than me have become the enemy at three in the morning hooting’ and hollering as the local bar down the street lets out.  Now I have to be in bed by nine because I am up at the crack of dawn with my two year old.  I love decorating my house because I bought the darn thing and want it to look nice. AND I do far more boring things on a Friday night, that candling my ears might be a good time!  I have become my parents and I am burdened by the things that I once did to burden my elders.  I don’t begrudge the youth their fun because those years were a blast but I am glad I am where I am now.  Who knows, maybe my elders think I am a nuisance with my music blaring out of my house as I wash my kitchen floor.  Maybe I am like a teenager to them!!  The stages of our lives are interesting and they go way too fast.  So for now I will continue to get up at the crack of dawn, putter in my garden while picking up the odd beer can or abandoned shoe that has made its way onto my lawn from a late night party across the street.   The odd time I might retaliate and start up the ol’ lawn mower early in the morn’ or ring their door bell a few times just to feel better.