The Boy Next Door?

A family in our town (well more than one) has a 15 yr. old boy who is just “full of beans”. One look from a discerning father’s eye is enough to see he is bad news. Not unpleasant, but very shifty, nervous and overly polite. He and his best pal sport vintage mullet haircuts. Lonny Jr. or “Junior” to some, has a bicycle with about a 6 foot long front section on his little K-Mart sport bike which he can barely keep upright, but looks very cool on nonetheless!

Lonny’s Mom called my sister in law, who told my wife, that Lonny and his crew had taken over the empty house next to his grandmother’s house. This occurred because his Mom, Lonny and little “bro” Bobby, moved into Grandma’s next door, since Lonny’s Mom didn’t buy water for the holding tank, let the electricity and gas get cut off, not to mention the phone. It seems that she works full time and makes good money, plus an income from SS for an absentee father who is 100% disabled. A portion is directed to her for Lonny and Bobby, who will be part of the crew in less than 2 yrs.. She isn’t aware that you have to sit down a couple of times a month and write a few checks and mail them in to the service providers. She left the doors open last winter and raccoons and other wild animals “holed up” in there and tore the furniture to shreds, defecating widely throughout the house for a little sport. She is generous to a fault and gives her boys a huge allowance every month, takes the kids everywhere, (then just drops them off!) buys her friends gifts, but can’t seem to pay her household bills and so has ended up sleeping on Mom’s floor, rather than have a cleaning crew come to restore her interior and have the bank deduct her household bills automatically, and reclaim her house and some space.

Meanwhile, Lonny and his crew it seems, saw the opportunity for a “clubhouse”, snuck in the house, and spiffed it up enough to where a cave man might enjoy it. The buzz got out that it was becoming a known hangout for kids (boys and girls) between 13 and 16 and was the place this little gang spent it’s nights. Complaints were finally made and the police found the “posse” partying about 1:00 am Saturday night. They found one bottle of wine “empty”, 5 cans of beer in various brand names “empty” and cigarettes. These were obviously pilfered singles from Dad’s cooler or the neighbor’s garage. They also found what they called a “small cache of weapons”, in a storage chest. Included were: 2 butterfly knives, 1 sword, 1 set of nunchaku, and a big stack of girly magazines. The party was ended immediately and the children were taken home. The parents of these kids were roundly chastised by the cops for not keeping a closer “eye” on them.

Lonny and his Mom were charged with something. They are going to court for various reasons stemming from this incident. I think Lonny at the very least, may finish the year in a “bootcamp” type school they have here for young offenders here. They have no contact with others during school time but can come home at night. His Mom will probably be scrutinized closely for her “fitness” as a mother by Human Services.

I’m not judging Lonny except for what I’ve mentioned about his being the type I would hesitate to believe or trust. What he and his pals did is not so different than many of us adults did when we were his age. Maybe with a more stable home environment he would be young enough to help get straightened out. That’s where the Mom, even though alone, has to step up to the plate and put rules and boundaries in a child’s life, and be conscientious about enforcing them. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.