I’ve passed by this house hundreds of times over the last dozen years. It was once a nice house but the yard is overgrown, the curtains on the windows appear to be little more than rags, some of the windows are boarded up. There was always a general feeling of neglect about it. Once I walked down the alley and peered over the fence into the backyard to see a fallen tree half in the swimming pool.

I’ve wondered what it’s story is. Could it be the home of some Boo Radley or maybe it’s haunted by the ghost of someone who died in a terrible crime. I suppose I’ll never know. The brush is being cleared away and it looks like it has been vacated. From the outside it looks interesting enough that someone could choose to restore it; more likely it will be razed.

We used to have a “cat woman” in the neighborhood too. It was another delapidated house with overgrown bushes. An ancient woman would emerge each night and feed dozens of cats. That house is gone now and the neighborhood becomes more “sanitized” every day.

Our own house had a reputation once upon a time too. When we moved in it too had peeling paint, overgrown bushes and bed sheets for curtains. I remember talking to a grade school boy who said kids would dare each other to run up and touch it.