Not in this neighborhood, the little bastages pack heat (i don't want no sweetarts beeyotch paloow paloow, now hustle your @$$ inside and get me some milky ways), guess I'll have to borrow whammies tazer, but i want one w/either flames on it or lightning bolts! Around here, the gangs LOOOVE halloween cuz they get dressed up in costumes and even the score w/rival gangs or rob the local retail stores.

You paint quite the picture, Monk! You had me laughing out loud at this one! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':ph34r:' />

I will be heading out of state to spend much needed time with my "bestie". We will be

dressing up and painting the town red once again.

sounds like a scary place to live Monk.

i hope Nilla is a good watch dog.

She's a great watchdog, sort of. It's not so scary but has it's moments. Like anything else, if you go looking for trouble, it's not too hard to find, especially around here.

I lived in a rough neighborhood for a while, so I know what you mean.

Got my kids out of there as soon as possible. When your 5 year old is

looking at a picture book and telling you a story about the pic and points

to the grandpa smoking a pipe and says "that's the grandfather smoking

weed" or when your 5 and 9 year old just jump over the drunk guy laying

on the sidewalk in front of your house and it doesn't even phase them,

then you know it's time to get out…and i did.

I used to take public transportation (the bus) into downtown Philly for work and would go through Camden NJ every day. You'd see this horrific scene (similar to what you described above)and see these kids standing there waiting for the bus to go school. I remember thinking to myself, how do these kids even have a chance at the REMOTEST iota of a normal life? Very sobering to say the least.

i ended up in that neighborhood, not by choice but necessity.

it was an eye opener. my boys were on short leashes. the

other kids were wild. ran the neighborhood all day and night.

their ideas of right and wrong were so warped. that's why

i got out of there as soon as possible. we were there 1.5

years. thank god it had no ill effect on my boys and i think

showed them why it's not a good idea to go down that road

(drinking and drugging).

Sadly, sometimes the best life lessons have to be seen in person for the true gravity to be appreciated.

on a happier note, i saw blow dry last night….pretty good

No whammies is right there is no substitute for good parenting.

However a bad environment just plays into the law of averages.

Some will beat the odds but most will not! I'm thinking of a Ghost

hunting themed Halloween party at the Olde Gin House this year.

If we do I'll take pictures of the event. I think I'll call it the

"JUMBY JUMP UP!"

Give out candy, and dress as my favorite wizard Minerva, because I could not pull off Snape. Heighth issue! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

A must see for us is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, we'll get it out and dust it off, and Time Warp again.