Hood Problems: Part 3, Lost Drawers

This is the third part of my Hood Problems series.

Here is part 1:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2015/06/hood-problems-part-1-strangers-with.html

Part 2:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2015/06/hood-problems-part-2-retaliation.html

When I get sent to apartment complexes to perform maintenance work, there is one thing that is more certain than death or taxes.  That is garbage.  Or more correctly, I would say litter.  Lots of litter thrown carelessly everywhere.  In the hood, I found a staggering amount of soda and alcohol bottles.  That's nothing new.

However, at each apartment complex I always find something odd.  I remember the first time I found an adult diaper half buried in a corner of a complex.  I have found a semi truck tire hanging near the dumpster one time.  However, the hood complex I was at had something that made me shake my head.  Drawers.  And not just one.  I found a surprising number of drawers underneath cars in the parking lots.

No, not those type of drawers.  Men's underwear.  However, since I blog on blogger, I am not allowed to post sexy images, so I have to post the closest thing I can.  But you get the idea.

This lead me to thinking, "Why are there so many drawers on the ground?  How can guys lose them at this kind of rate?"  Well, it may have something to do with how they wear their pants in the hood.

And before anyone says, "That's racist!," please know that every adult male I saw at that complex had his pants like that.  Every one except the probation officer who was there to check on one of his "clients."  He didn't wear his pants like that.  But every adult male who lived there did.

Of course, they could have been cast aside by Underpants Gnomes who realized there was no way they were going to make a profit off them.

But anyway, let me get back to being a bit serious for the story.  My day is boring.  Extremely boring.  Even my bosses know this, and let me listen to my I-pod all day.  So when something as weird as drawers hidden underneath cars shows up, it brings a bit of excitement to my day.  It just makes a great story to tell your co-workers during an otherwise boring day.  It also makes a somewhat good blog. 

Hood Problems: Part 1, Strangers With Candy

I work as a maintenance man for a staffing company.  As such, I get sent to all sorts of properties across the Tampa Bay area.  I have been at upper class apartments, student housing, new, old, and all across the board types of properties.  However, this past week I went to the ghetto of ghetto apartments.  They were located in a bad, old section of town, and the entire place was Section 8 housing. 

Usually apartments will reserve part of the complex for Section 8 housing, so they can get some of that wonderful government money, but this was the first complex that I had been to that the entire place was Section 8 housing. 

On my second day I noticed a ton of children running around unattended.  After I thought about it, I remembered that school let out last week.  The problem I noticed is that all the kids were six years old and younger.  I saw a pack of four girls, all of them three years old and younger (yes, younger) running around the complex all day without any parents watching them.

I noticed a theme in that, if the kids could walk, they were left to go on their own with no supervision.  Frankly, I'm shocked by that.  I've seen pit bulls take better care of their young.

What really got me was something that I just had to write about.  Hence, the name of this particular blog.  This little girl came up to me and asked me if I knew where to get some chips.  This immediately flashed me back to my childhood where I learned about Stranger Danger and Strangers With Candy.

Not only was this hammered into my head by my teachers and parents as a kid.  We had McGruff the Crime Dog warning us in PSA's about Stranger Danger.

Now, my readers are of all sorts of ages, but even my older readers can remember some of the black and white PSA's warning of Strangers.  Schools and PSA's teaching about strangers goes back many, many decades.  So did this one just miss the boat, or is there just a "don't care" attitude that goes on there?

I wish I could have gotten ahold of her Mom, Grandmother, whoever, to let them know what happened.  But like I said, I never saw one parent watch or keep their kid in line. 

Let's be honest under worst case scenario, some stranger could have told that little girl (who may have been three or four years old) that he knew exactly where to get chips and to come with him.  And who knows if they would have ever found her body after that? 

I just feel that there's a lot of blame to go around.  But the way parents treated their kids around that place borders on neglect.  I just wonder if any of those kids will have a chance in life or will they be living in the same Section 8 housing when they are adults?

(That's not all that happened in my adventures in the Hood.  Stay tuned for Part 2.)