PERSONAL:
HALLOWEEN AT THE MOLLY HOUSE:
Halloween here at Molly's Haunted House of Horrors was a great success, better than last year. Over 150 kids dropped by. As usual I went whole pig on the yard decorations, and both kids and adults got a great kick out of it. I say adults because almost all kids were accompanied by one or two adults. This seems to be a trend that increases year by year. As usual there were the carloads of kids who were driven around town looking for houses with decorations. This was even more prominent this time around because many people from the North End simply didn't feel safe having their kids do trick or treating in their own neighbourhood because of the recent night of three shootings ( 2 separate deaths and one where the gunman opened up on a group of kids for no perceptible reason, almost fatally injuring one girl). Word is that not own my own East Kildonan but also St. Boniface and Hippy Town (Wolseley) had a great increase in kids this year. I guess that people didn't want to drive too far (no reports of such increases out in the suburbs) , but they still wanted to avoid the shooting gallery. Talking to people in the North End, and they said that in their case all kids were accompanied by at least two adults, unlike in past years. The Indian and Métis Friendship Centre held an alternative Halloween party in the North End for people who were too nervous to let their kids out onto the streets at all. Reality can be scarier than fantasy.
Too bad such a night of fun has to be spoiled by such anxiety. For me at least it was great fun even if I didn't have time to put everything up. New decorations this year, people taking pictures of the yard, the usual for what I consider the best holiday of the year. Nothing to do from now until the New Year except accounting and slouching my way towards Christmas.
4 comments:
I have not gone back to check the area where those shootings occurred but I am pretty sure it is the same neighbourhood Chris Walter brought to life in his tale of growing up in Winnipeg - "Mosquitoes and Whisky."
To my great shame I've never read anything by Chris Walter so I did the sensible thing and looked him up. He seems like a very good writer, at least judging from his titles, bio and subject matter. I ESPECIALLY like the title of his self-publishing outfit...Gofuckyerself Press ( http://punkbooks.com )
I'm not too sure if he was talking about Winnipeg's North End or the West End. Over the years the latter has had a worse reputation than the former. The title of one off his books is simply 'Langside' which is a street in the West End that is part of the cesspool I call the "Dreaded Langside/Furby/Young Run".
Who knows. I'll have to get ahold of 'Mosquitos and Whisky' (a good Winnipeg title if there ever was one) to find out. thanks for pointing this out to me Beer.
My favourite story about Winnipeg gang life. A few years ago a car of clowns from the IP crossed the river over to the neighbourhood where I live to shoot up the house of one of their enemies. Bang bang !! Ooops ! Wrong house. Around the block they go. Bang, bang ! Ooops second wrong house ! The problem ( or perhaps virtue to their enemies )with Winnipeg's gangsters is that a lot of them are LITERALLY too illiterate to be able to read street signs.
You won't be disappointed if you read Mosquitoes and Whisky and Langside back to back. He was a westsider. They ought to be one novel.
It's been years since I had my last experience with (I believe) 551 Furby St ( or is it 561 ? ). It is one of the darkest pits in Winnipeg's West End and pretty well everybody I've talked to who works in a service industry (from pizza, to plumber, from carpenter to contractor, from telephone to ???) has a horror story about that building.
I have more than one. My favourite is when I arrived shortly after the cops did at an apartment that had an evil natured Doberman. As I approached I noticd that the door had been kicked down (by the cops actually). Knock, knock I went in. My first question after introducing myself and remarking about how good their air conditioning was ; "is the dog still here ?"
Sonofabitch the cops didn't shoot the evil mutt. Obviously I'm making no money here, as the druggies who haven't been arrested bounch back and forth across the walls. I take a quick look at the idiot dog who is baring his teeth in utter ignorance of how he has just escaped a 12" hole in his chest and throw an eye ointment at the owners. I get the cost of the ointment out of their crooked pockets, and that is all I expect to collect as I write the bill.
To say the least "I'm gone" with little expectation that they will ever treat the dog.
I love Winnipeg ????? It's a good thing that I can "ghost" through almost any situation.
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