"The Establishment"

I do not live in the best part of Gloucester. It is certainly not the worst, but there is a half-heartedly scrubbed area on the front of the building where you can still read the green spraypaint that says the only word you need to understand some of my neighbors-Meth.

Some of my neighbors are perfectly respectable! Others border on suspicious to say the least. A few doors down is what will hear by be know as "The Establishment." Upon first moving in, I noticed one of the many bumper stickers on their front door was a warning that a crazy bitch lived there. I appreciate the headsup. Truly. Over our few years on the block, the stickers changed and the odd cast of characters have not... At least not that much. Due to the constant stream of people in and out, The Husband and I decided that The Establishment was an illegal boarding house. After discussing it with a friend who knows the seedy underbelly of the area pretty well, and their seeing some of the individuals milling about, confirmed there was a known dealer of the drugs in there. None of this bothers me. To each their own. Until your friends come up to my car window, clearly jonesing and looking for you, I won't car. Even then... I will care some but once they are ambling in a different direction all is well.

The jonesing guy did happen. He was totally cool when we explained that even though we were parked infront of The Establishment that we didn't know any one inside. He milled around their door then shambled down the street.

Since then, the street pharmacist has appeared to leave and the foot traffic has calmed down. Sadly, with him went the very large, derpy husky that jung out of the window.

For a while a sign of cardboard let you know "PUT IT OUT OR STAY OUT!" Perhaps to ward off the previous mix of people coming by? Maybe they quit smoking? Although, one of the ladies there did ask someone walking by if they had a ciggarette. So maybe trying to quit? IDK.

We had been Establishment-incident free for a while, but then Saturday happened. Our car was parked out front and as we were getting in I noticed an adorable child, approximately 3 years of age standing outside. Alone. Well, alone in the sense that there was no adult with him. There was an infant with him in a carriage. Being naturally curious, like a 3 year old do, he was playing with the part of the carriage that sheilds the infant from the elements. It was a pretty cool day for the summer, no blazing sun but some nice breeze. The proprietor of The Establishment came out and told the kid not to play with it because its too cold for the baby.

Yeah. You read right. She left the house to tell him its too cold outside for the baby. While these children are waiting outside for whoever brought them there. She did stay out there with them, at least until we left on our bougie trip to Whole Foods. I was so concerned... Like what are you doing in this place that makes you feel it is ok to leave an infant and a 3 year old outside in not the greatest part of town?

We returned from our trip to Whole Foods and parked in pretty much the same spot. The children were now inside, The Husband pointed out as the carseat part of the carriage was missing. Then I saw the screen door. A shirtless 3 year old stood staring at me. This child proceeded to grill me on why I was parking there. Why don't you park in front of your own house? Why do you live here? The longer the questioning went on, the less I could understand him. He divided his time between grilling me and letting everyone in The Establishment know he was grilling me. We made a break for it when he got tied up talking to those inside. We grabbed our haul and walked away. The Husband reminded me you can't reason with a 3 year old.

He has a point. You really can't reason with a child that young. However there is no understanding your neightbors sometimes.

Hopefully, they will get up to their old hijinks and I can start filling you in on the regular of the weird shit going on at The Establishment.