Another Reason I Love Speedway

When my family moved into our house, we were very excited to meet our new neighbors and were quickly rewarded for our enthusiasm by meeting our next door neighbor, who was a delightful woman. She was retired and thought my son (my daughter was not yet born) was just adorable and doted on him considerably. My wife got along with her as well, as they had a shared interest in gardening.

Shortly thereafter, I met the neighbor across the street. What a guy! He worked as a consultant in the building trades and did quality control; he was a salt-of-the-earth type who liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer... so we had one thing in common; we got along swimmingly.

So far so good, until my "across the street" neighbor told me about how he had previously gotten into a fistfight with my nextdoor neighbor within the past year or so. My inner voice immediately started pestering me with the "what in the hell did you get yourself into?" type questions. It was never an issue I had to address, as both sets of neighbors were gone within a year or so.

Let me make this absolutely clear: I think that grown men having a fistfight is embarrassingly juvenile. I was embarrassed for them, even if they weren't themselves embarrassed. I teach my young children not to fight and would expect that grown men would've learned this lesson by now.

My thoughts on that have now changed a bit, as I have now witnessed a lawsuit between and among neighbors and realize the Speedway situation could have been much worse.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a litigator so I'm down to sue people or defend those being sued. I do it for a living. I'm just glad that there isn't a lawsuit ripping my neighborhood in half right now; I'm glad my neighbors can contemplate the notion that perhaps they can just vent their frustrations with each other and proceed to live and let live.

So, to the juvenile grown men who want to solve their problems by punching each other in the face, grow the f**k up, but at least you didn't shoot each other and at least you didn't sue each other.

#Speedway