Living Imperfectly: The Wrong Side of the Tracks

I took the pups on a walk this morning that turned into a bit more of an adventure than I was going for. Indulge me for a minute as I tell you what a terrible dog owner I am before getting onto my main post. We usually walk around our quaint and charming historic downtown, but today I went the opposite direction as we headed towards the park. Geographically Harris Park is not far from our house, but we are separated from it by the railroad tracks. The track runs right down the middle of downtown and is blocked off by rod iron fencing except at a few intersections. So we had to walk all the way around the fencing before finding an opening a few blocks away. My dogs are in their geriatric stage so we rested for a bit once arriving at the park in preparation for the trek home. I opted to take a different way home thinking it would be shorter than our fence induced detour. I don't think it was any shorter and it was far more heroing to say the least. At one point after dragging poor Penny down a too steep, over grown hill we had to walk along the highway frontage road. Penny is particular about being on my right side, so she was a little too close to traffic for my liking. I ended up carrying her along this stretch of road. Then Toby just sat down on the shoulder of the road and refused to walk any further. He was spooked by the noise of the train crossing on the bridge overhead and the cars on the highway wizzing by. So I picked him up too. Then I dropped my keys. Picture me on the shoulder of this frontage road squatting down to pick up my keys while holding an elderly dog under each arm. I kind of looked like a dog super mom rescuing my children from danger, but then when you take into account that I'm the one that led them down this doomed path you can't really call me super. In fact my lead may make me the villan. We entered back into the neighborhood a little worse for wear. Though on residential streets there still weren't sidewalks. Toby had to stop because he had diarhea. Penny began dragging tail so I just carried her the rest of the way home. Well whatever the saying is about the road paved with good intentions, my best intentions led me to exposing my children to dangerous traffic and causing exhaustion and diarhea. Total failure.

Now onto my actual post. Our adventure making our way around the railroad tracks reminded me of a debate Daniel and I have. We live just a few blocks from the tracks and have to cross them everyday. We pondered this and began asking the dreaded question, "Do we live on the wrong side of the tracks?" Practically it seems that yes we do, but our bigger concern is with the figurative question of status and class. Do we live on "the bad side of town", "the wrong side of the tracks". Daniel and I have had many conversations where we weigh the affluence and attributes of each geographic side of the tracks. Schools: Lee's Summit West HS is on the other side, but Lee's Summit North HS is on our side...equal. Neighborhoods: all the Wintersets and Longview are on the other side, our side has Lakewood though...equal. Hy-Vees: Hy-Vee West seems to be a little cleaner/nicer than the one on 291...hmm a point for the other side. Blockbusters: Blockbuster West is a stand alone building while the 291 location shares its facility with a Hallmark store...ugh lost another point. For me the straw that broke the camel's back though was that the other side has Target and we have Wal-Mart. I enjoy Wal-Mart, but when it comes to status, clearly Target is viewed as more prestigious. That parallel is a kind of a microcosm of the two sides of the tracks. Wal-Mart isn't bad, but Target is just a little newer, nicer, cooler, and more expensive. So I think the consensus is that we do indeed live on the wrong side of the tracks. We're hoodlums.