I’m Officially A Grumpy Old Man

Tuesday October 3, 2006 at 1:04 am | Filed under Home, Me

Sunday night about 11:30 a couple of kids on skateboards decided to hang out in front of the school that’s across the street from our house. I know this because I was trying to go to bed at the time and all I could hear was the crack of ollies and the skidding of wheels through my window. I shut the window and tried to get to sleep… no dice. So I got up and messed around on the computer a bit until at about 12:30, they left. Big whoopty doo, right?

Monday night comes along and around the same time that evening four cars roll up to our street and park in front of our house. Eight kids get out and walk across the street to the school and set up camp. Skating and talking and all that. Good kid fun, I know. But again, I’m about to go to sleep and I know the same thing is gonna happen where I can’t fall asleep.

So not wanting this to turn into a trend I do what every man 30 years my elder would do. I call the cops. I was pretty torn deciding whether or not to do this or not, since I’ve done my fair share of noisemaking at that very school after dark. But since this was the second night, and it was a lot more people out there, I did it anyway and the cops did indeed come about 30 minutes after I called. The kids seemed to take is well, as they hopped in their cars and split.

So I’m still up, about to hit the sack and I thought I’d record this moment of geezerness. I’m not sure if I’m upset with myself for calling the po-po or not. I’m a noise freak and I like my peace and quiet, but I want to try to let kids have their fun too. I think it all came down to midnight on a weeknight, trying to stop a nightly skate meet from starting outside my house, and me trying to get to sleep. Do you blame me? What would you have done?

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14 Responses to “I’m Officially A Grumpy Old Man”

  1. Margaret Says:
    October 3rd, 2006 at 8:48 am

    Midnight on a weeknight is more than reasonable. I would lean more towards 11:00 myself. I think the noise curfew is around 11:00. Calling the Police was the right thing to do. You don’t want to confront them yourself. They may have been understanding and toned it down but more than likely not. One of your neighbors would have eventually done the same thing but how much sleep would you have lost in the mean time?

  2. Jon Says:
    October 3rd, 2006 at 9:26 am

    Hahaha! That is so funny because 18 years ago, that was you in that very same spot cracking ollies. Calling the cops is cool. Better that than you going out there and getting a beat down from the unruly bastards (can you tell I’m all geezed out now, also?). We’ve got a “party house” near us where some rich Grandma paid cash for a house for her grandkid. It’s a couple in their early 20s with a 5-yr-old. There have been fights in the street, the ol’ drive-by-battering-of-curbside-mailboxes, and urinating in mailboxes. After two times of this within a month of them moving in, I started calling the cops as soon as I noticed more than three cars in front of their house. Our response time out here for a “loud party” call is about two hours. So I call about 9:30 or 10:00 when things are still quiet. After about three months, they calmed it way down over there and things are peaceful again.

  3. Monique Says:
    October 3rd, 2006 at 1:31 pm

    You left out a few of your other grumpy old man episodes. ;)

  4. Shana Says:
    October 3rd, 2006 at 5:00 pm

    We had a grumpy old couple incident on Friday. Our neighbors daughter started smoking. Most of the time she smokes on the porch, but at times, when her mother isn’t home, she smokes in the house, which is nasty. It’s always late at night. We talked to them. Her mother hates the smoke, so it started a nasty argument between them!

  5. Curly Says:
    October 8th, 2006 at 6:43 pm

    I woulda done the same thing. But it’d be for their own good, not because I’m a grumpy old man. My grumpiness comes out when I’m trying to navigate the shopping carts left smack in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store, by people of all ages without a shred of self-awareness. And when I’m riding bike, navigating clueless pedestrians who insist on crossing the street without looking, or on walking down the middle of the street, apparently unaware that this is a good way to hasten one’s death.

    I’ll call the cops on Dan Brown, too. (Just checking if Shana’s reading.)

  6. Linda Says:
    October 9th, 2006 at 9:09 pm

    “crack of ollies”?!? I’m pretty sure using this phrase gets you kicked out of the Geezer Club.

  7. Rich Says:
    October 9th, 2006 at 9:36 pm

    We’ve had our share of partiers that have lived in close proximity to us, and I struggled with the same thing my own self, just because I don’t like to consider myself a “geezer.” However, when your wife is trying to sleep, and she can’t because some psycho hose beast trying to get her Mischa Barton on, yelling her twentysomething boyfriend, and dropping F-bombs every three seconds, it’s just about the easiest phone call to make. Of course, I’m not so much a geezer as I am a crumudgeon. So get off my lawn.

  8. joe popp Says:
    October 12th, 2006 at 12:35 pm

    Guess youwon’t be buying any of this stuff?

    http://joepop.fatcow.com/store/index.html

  9. Joe Says:
    October 12th, 2006 at 4:47 pm

    Wow.. it’s the other Joe Popp! My old Joe Popp shirt is getting pretty old, so maybe I need to get a new one of the skater variety!

  10. Tim Says:
    October 16th, 2006 at 2:11 pm

    Joe, your situation notwithstanding, I’m still stuck on Jon’s comment about the “urinating in mailboxes” trick. Now, I’m no physics whiz (heh heh), but I’m finding it difficult to imagine I’d have the ability to position myself in a way that would allow me to do that. Unless I detached the mailbox somehow, did my business inside it, and then reattached it. Even then, though, I can’t imagine it wouldn’t all spill out (unless it’s Tupperware or something), rendering my attempt futile. On the other hand, maybe the fact that I can’t accomplish this type of vandalism just means that I am, much to my chagrin, a geezer as well.

    What was your question again? Oh, right, the skateboarding. Hells yeah, you call the cops. Every night if you have to. Calling the cops is one of the privileges of being an adult. That, and the depressing realization of impending death.

  11. Mike Helmantoler Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 1:00 pm

    I’m all with ya, Joe… had similar instances with next door. Bunch of kids (early-mid 20’s—I always feel like a grumpy old man when I start referring to those older and older as “kids”–basically anyone younger than me). Parties all night on weekends, beer bottles thrown over the fence into my yard, lewd comments made to our teenage daughter and her friend through the fence during the aforementioned parties, punk band practice on tuesday nights, parking (rusted out, tarp-covered, non-running) milk truck, boat, and old truck in front of our house.

    Then there’s the neighbors across the street with with the broken glass covered with duct tape whom I’ve personally almost run over the 3 year old twice as he just runs around in the street—once leaving me to jump out of my car to grab him as he was running across 4 lanes of traffic in a diaper. Same kid seen number of times crawling out the upstairs window b/c the missing screens on their windows…him crawling around on the patio cover. Found the 7 year old out on the same patio cover a couple months back peeing into a squirt gun. The list goes on and on. Needless to say, we’ve been frequent callers to the city and CPS. Been fun.

  12. Shana Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 9:03 pm

    You know, Curly, for someone who says he dislikes Dan Brown, you sure do comment on him. I suppose next you might say “The Last Temptation of Christ” is not a masterpiece - wink!

  13. Monique Says:
    October 23rd, 2006 at 6:19 pm

    Now Myk…I remember when you used to like punk bands! What happened???

  14. myk Says:
    December 4th, 2006 at 11:52 am

    Yeah yeah…I know…

    I still like it… but not thrilled when it annoys the wife and the kids can’t sleep—then it affects ME.

    I don’t tend to get too wound up until it does…usually mr mellow.

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