Years ago in Patagonia, there was a man who had a business on that now abandoned lot at the far west end of town that happened to be right next door to my great-grandmother’s house. The business was called Ben’s Bargain Yard. It was a collection of junk covered in rust. You might have found a car part or an office chair if you looked close enough.
The piles of junk were stacked in rows to create trails that all led to a trailer that Ben lived in. Up against the trailer were giant barrels filled with water dogs or salamanders, and he was always more than happy to let curious little girls take a look. This of course was a huge no-no and we were cautioned very loudly to stay away from there. We didn’t see anything wrong with hanging out with a creepy old man in a junkyard.
Now I know that his barrels of water dogs were the equivalent to puppies in a van. But back then we saw no danger. Whether or not Ben was a bad guy is unknown, but I can guarantee that the whole town kept an eye on him because selling junk and advertising free water dogs could only mean one thing, right?
Prior to Ben and his junkyard, a man sometime in the early ’80s had the audacity to drive into town in a van. He didn’t approach anyone that I know of. He didn’t rob the market or drive drunk. He simply drove into town and parked. It wasn’t too long before the marshal made contact with the man and escorted him out of town. His only crime was being a man in a van.
There are other stories of people being escorted out of town to the county line in Patagonia history. Times have changed and the number of strangers visiting and moving to town are so numerous that the “old watch” can no longer keep track. As a reaction to this, kids have disappeared from the streets, mostly due to hypervigilant parents.
It has only been recently that we have seen a shift in kids roaming like they used to.
We can’t escort all the strangers out of town (or can we?) but we can keep our eyes out for the kids here in Patagonia and beyond. They deserve a childhood filled with bike riding and fort building.
My grandma would make us a lunch and push us out the door so that she could clean the house in peace and watch “Days of Our Lives” uninterrupted. We often found ourselves eating cheese sandwiches in a shady part of the creek plotting our next move. My grandma knew we were safe thanks to the watchful eye of the community.
We need a nation of people who keep an eye out for the children whether they are ours or not. This includes those who have grown up and been forgotten. We can’t let those in charge turn their backs to them.
“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” – James Baldwin