Holiday Spirits – Or more like one "two" many for some

I happened to have moved back into an area in support of a family member recovering from some fairly serious surgery. For reasons beyond my control, and his constant fear of “being left helpless” if I leave, has placed me into one of the most difficult positions of my lifetime.

This town, as small as it is, is one gigantic group of dysfunctional alcoholics, with marriages on the brink (surprise). I take the case of the two neighbors I am surrounded by, they’ve always had problems with the two I am caring for now (which are close to being in their 80′s). All I ever hear from the neighbors are complaints, complaints about the birds flying around (these two allow the barn swallows to nest all over the place, and admittedly have too many feeders), smoke from burning lawn debris and paper (this is something that is now outlawed in NYS but, has been done for the 30 years prior to me coming back to lend a hand), bushes being in “their line of site”, noise, yet these two have the most incompatible home lives I have seen in my life.

Of course neither one of these two will address these issues directly, they are directing them through me, and yes the police have been involved, I called them once, and of course both neighbors consume LARGE quantities of alcohol, Coors Light to be exact, cases of this stuff, and if it isn’t the hangovers to deal with, it’s the drunkenness, being called out on the street to fight sort of thing. Only a couple of weeks ago, I looked out the window to see flashing lights all over the place, every cop from every jurisdiction was parked just two doors down the road, with several people handcuffed on the ground.

So okay, I don’t drink (oh rarely, maybe once or twice a year in fact I celebrated a birthday in Las Vegas over a year ago , and up until Christmas this year hadn’t had any alcohol at all) and I am not one of those “activists” but, this town does spell out a great example as to why prohibition was implemented in the first place. So, when neighbors are on their second, third marriages and those are now on the rocks, you would think that somehow they could relate that to the booze… not a chance…. they’ll blame it on the neighbors…

So where am I leading with this? I guess the morale of this story is, if you are driving through rural upstate New York, and come across some quaint looking village, and stop and say, “Wow, what a great place to raise the kids, quite country setting” don’t be fooled, issues such as intra-family breeding, alcohol abuse, and domestic violence are amongst the top competitors for crime in these areas.

If you think you have just driven into Mayberry RFD, turn right around and head straight back to where you came from, trust me…..

Yes, grant it most of it is not being aired out like the laundry to dry, it is being pent-up and taken out on spouses, children, and neighbors. So sad a waste of life being an alcoholic but, what’s even worse is living smack dab between two of them, I mean good god give me a break….

Posted by rgrone on January 3, 2010. Filed under Opinion Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.