Our gray, cold and dropping temperatures have once more vanished. It is chilly but sunny and clear, a beautiful day to be off screens and outside.
The Super Bowl has been to my locale twice in the time I've lived in this building. It is hard to believe it has been over twenty years. By no means an American football fan, what I recall of those events has little to do with the sport and more to do with swelling traffic, crowds, noise and other more unsavory activities.
Though this community is small, our location right off a major road has always meant that the shrill sounds of an ambulance, along with fire and sheriff vehicles, breaking into my sleep at all hours. The added volume of traffic during Super Bowl weekend meant more cars, law enforcement out in increased numbers and fitful sleep for yours truly.
Awakened, I decided to get up and take out the garbage. Returning from the dumpster, I find my elderly neighbor poking around in the grass just outside our mailboxes. He tells me he's lost his key. After ducking inside for a flashlight, I notice blood on his face and helping him inside my apartment, begin to piece together the facts of a mugging at a nearby bank machine at which he had made a deposit.
The sheriff and paramedics arrived shortly thereafter as did his two granddaughters and a friend of theirs. While laundering the blood from his dress shirt and making sure he did not need to go to the hospital, I was relieved when the deputies and trio of women finally decamped. His wallet, found in a restaurant parking lot, was returned later that night, apparently emptied and left there by persons on a crime spree in this usually peaceful neighborhood.
I never knew who they were or what stupidity seized them and made them think they could get away with roughing up an older man and stealing from him. Though he has been dead for years, I spare a kind thought for this neighbor and his family on Super Bowl weekends. As the rest of America waits and watches, I will curl up with a book and hope for a sound sleep.
Have a good week...
7 comments:
Sadly tragedies too often go hand in hand with 'big celebrations'. I am glad you were able to help him at the time.
Curling up with a book sounds ideal to me.
Super Bowl is on our televisions. Two of my brothers will watch (from the safety of home). I will not.
Hugs to you and Lukas.
I don't know who's playing! Today I've been engrossed in Palindrome Day, Candlemas, Groundhog Day, to remember it's also super bowl day. I wonder what number they're up to.
That is a sad story about your neighbour. I'm so pleased you were there to help him at the time.
No Super Bowl here. My husband and I aren't sports fans.
Wow! I forgot that story, if I've ever heard it. I guess crime sprees often do go hand-in-hand with big events and large gatherings of people. Needless to say, we didn't pay any attention to the Super Bowl. I didn't even realize it was Super Sunday.
I, too, got in bed with a good book. Or at least a decent book.
I am glad that you were able to help that man with his terrible situation. I will never understand crimes like that. I wish I did, then there might be hope to stop them.
How sad that the most vulnerable in society are often the first to be victims of crime. Kudos to you for taking in that gentleman and helping him. I'm sure he remembered your kindness for the rest of his life.
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