And etc…

Last night I went to work with Matt. He told me that I would be, and I quote, “less bored there than alone at home.” Verdict? It was a toss-up.

First off, this club is in the “reservation ghetto.” Last year there was a huge crack bust and about 25 people were arrested by the FBI. There’s a lot of gang violence/brutal murders here. It’s apparently the most dangerous place in Wisconsin after Milwaukee. So I’m thinking…sure…I’ll go with you to the club…and maybe afterwards we can party in some dark alleys and jump from car to car on the interstate!

The very first thing one notices at the club site in the ghetto (Matt works the rest of the week at a different Boys and Girls Club site on the reservation) is that the building (a modular home) has bars on the windows. Great. Matt assures me that these are merely so that when people break the windows they can’t get in to steal stuff. Well, that’s good, I guess. There were also a few boarded-up windows, pre-hurricane quality boarding. They mean business…stay out! Of course, you can always just walk inside and steal stuff when nobody’s paying attention. This is apparently much easier, a conclusion I reached after noticing the absence of certain items, like some pool balls.

After becoming wary of some stray dogs that were staring at us (”Do they look good enough for supper, Bob?”) I discovered that the inside of the building (house?) is interesting, too. Have you ever seen a house with a plastic picnic table in the kitchen and various other rooms? There are several holes in the ceiling from hyperactive or disgruntled children with pool cues. The TV is apparently permanently set to ESPN. At least that’s what I determined the channel was…it was playing some sort of weird documentary about a basketball player and his experiences with crack. Educational. I remember an overabundance of rap music. How can I forget the incessant droning of a song about a hustler over and over again? I’m using the term “song” rather loosely in this context.

We played pool. A lot of pool. The pool table isn’t exactly in good shape…the felt is all roughed up so when you hit the ball, no matter how precisely and well-aimed, it sometimes just stops or goes off in a weird direction or bounces. It only flew off the table once, and it wasn’t my turn. Pool at this club can be dangerous for spectators. Also, do you know how hard it is to play pool when you’re using an extra cue ball for the 8-ball? You really have to pay attention to this, too, on top of being on the lookout for a flying ball. Of course, this was all acceptable. At least there weren’t any old guys making fun of me.

We drew pictures on a piece of notebook paper. I tried talking in Spanish. It was somewhat unbearably hot. I was attacked by mosquitoes (someone apparently had a disagreement with the bottom of the glass door…the door lost and the bottom glass pane went to window heaven). We cooked a pizza using a Presto Pizza Pizzazz, as seen on TV at 4 am.

All in all, it was an interesting experience. If there had been guns it would’ve been like a movie with Michelle Pfeiffer. Well, with the notable absence of Michelle Pfeiffer. And education. However, everyone was dressed as if they were in Dangerous Minds. I never actually saw the whole movie, but I saw enough previews and trailers to feel fairly confident with this assessment.

And in regards to my last post on the infamous Harry Potter, I think my dear sister Ashley might be correct. We are probably giving J.K. Rowling too much credit. We may be reading too much into this book and coming up with agendas we just want to believe exist. Of course, we can’t admit this because that would be like saying we prefer reading trashy romance novels to literary classics. It’s just undignified.