[Baynative]

Your comments about the first impression you had of your neighbor stooping low by the fence is very similar to the last lines in the story that many posters here seem to be ignoring.

"Let me tell you a story, son, about a time when I forgot about the Black Male Code.

One morning I left our car at the shop for repairs. I was walking home through our quiet suburban neighborhood, in a cold drizzle, wearing an all-black sweatsuit with the hood pulled over my head.

From two blocks away, I saw your mother pull out of our driveway and roll towards me. When she stopped next to me and rolled down the window, her brown face was full of laughter.

"When I saw you from up the street," your mother told me, "I said to myself, what is that guy doing in our neighborhood?" ~~~

[mylife]

We teach our children to be children to often.
We need to teach them to be adults.