Twas interesting last night. Maxine and her crew had a backyard barbeque that spilled into the alley, when they pushed aside the illegally dumped crap that had been resting along their fence for who knows how long. As usual the exchanges were spoken as if they were far distances form each other and in the country, loud. On the other side of the fence from me the neighbors were hanging out on their patio, sipping white wine and entertaining a guest. Despite the smoke and the noise from the opposite side of the alley they were not going to move from the patio. I decided to take advantage of the warm Spring evening and sit out on my patio with a camping chair, with foot rests, and read a gardening book. We all had backyards, it was a lovely day, and dammit we were going to hang out in the back.
The crew on the other side of the alley conversed with each other from various parts of the property, constantly, with few breaks. Requests for hot dogs from the kitchen to the yard, questions about who was where deep inside the house filtered out, and joshing in the alley. The was a short lag in the talking and then someone figured it was time to turn on (blast) music. I don't remember the tune but it featured the word "nigaz" quite often. The song/ rap only got a minute into it before someone yelled something to someone else and the music was turned off. After that it, went back on, starting at the begining of the song, again. This went on 3 times. Under the sounds from the alley were the sounds next door, clinking of silver against china and barely heard conversation. Only when B seemed to want to make a point did I pick up on anything they said. The only noises I made were shifting my chair, grunts of pain and annoyance, which no one probably heard, 'cept me.
Then it got dark.
The alley light flickered on but by that time I turned on my patio light. The neighbors were sitting at their teak (?) table, still sipping wine to candlelight and later their patio light. Across the alley they just had the alley light, which with the fence wasn't helpful. The noise and the people had moved inside, except the one person in charge of the grill, feeling his way in the dark. I figured it was time to go in, make dinner, wash clothes, so I turned off the light and went inside. Peering out the window later, I saw the neighbors still sitting out on the patio, sipping wine and talking, the folks on the other side of the alley had already called it quits.
posted by Mari @ 21.4.04
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