Eyesore in Scales Mound - A small voice

They will be bulldozing my old house next year I hear. My sister and I talked about how we wish we could watch it from a distance. Our house will be gone soon. The town eyesore gone at last so many must be saying!

The siding is more black than white, the water stained lace curtains in the front window. The sagging porches.

The way that house looks - well that's what was done to our soul. It was left to rot through neglect and abandonment. We moved there from the suburbs of Chicago and it all went terribly awry.

It was not for just a lack of resources, it was for lack of human compassion.

Everyone likes to speculate on reasons not to help or reach out, it seems to be a world fact I am finding. I have been nieve to think if people know they try to do better.

Encourage each other. Love each other. Treat each other like you want to be treated.

Don't speak negatively of people. Build them up, not tear them down.

Treat people as an individual, not as one family entity.

She/he is not their sibling or parents.

Be a little tolerant.

When there is abuse/neglect/hardship/family crisis, it tends to leave a kid a bit unsure.

Invite newcommers to your town for dinner.

See a family struggling?

Too embarressed or shy to ask if they need help? Leave a bag of groceries on their porch like you're playing ding dong ditch. It is actually fun to do - it's actually along the lines of thrilling if you want to know!:>)

Put together a gift basket to make a dismal holiday a little brighter. It changes everything...things can be as crappy as humanly possible...you can be cold, hungry and without what you've always known, but knowing someone cares, it is enough to keep the hope going.

Give them (the town lepers) an encouraging smile, when nobody else is looking if that's how its got to be. If you are afraid to stand out, I mean.

It might just mean everything for that person, on that particular day.

I can't tell you the kinds of life I really had over there in that disgusting house my family lived because people don't want to know...they just get very quiet. My voice rings a little too much raw truth for people sometimes. I know. I just can't help it. I can't water it down any more than I have, pretty it up.

I can be thankful to God that good can be extracted from a very seriously painful time in my life. It ignited something in me that I cannot snuff out - the need to educate, speak out, speak up. To stand up for children, families, the elderly. I've found it impossible not to.

What those people in that town never realized is that I loved them, thought so much of them, even though I was treated like I was non-existant it seemed. I still do care, or I wouldn't be trying to make some kind of ding of a difference. I realize I might come off as a fruit cup to some - I can't be afraid what people think.

Tell a kid they matter. That they're worth something. You might just be the only one who does in their life at the time.

God Bless Scales Mound, that she blooms and grows. Known for compassion, outreach and love. That people will come to settle and want to stay. A real family community, without the slander, gossip and judgments. That people come to Christ and actually read their bibles, where the truth is not distorted, how we are to live and act.

Sincerely,
Spookette, class of 1990

It's taken some years to untangle the emotions. My voice is raw, unpolished - but it's from the heart. Reach out to these lost kids who have nobody. Take them under your wing.

I'm known to ramble write...sorry. Thank you for reading...

Vote McCain/Palin! A nation not "under God" is not a nation that will continue to stand long. Our freedom and liberties are at stake.

I am so sorry .....I moved to Scalemound after you "Class of 1990.".....But you are right, No one wants to get into what is going on with someone elses family....I am sorry you have such bad memories of this place ......I dont click here either...God bless you ...I hope when the house comes down it is of some relief for you ....