Nudity in the Community

As my classmates verbally abused their obnoxious neighbors in discussion on Monday, I kept to myself and listened.  From unruly triplets to foreign, aspiring-trampoline gymnasts I found all of the anecdotes entertaining--until I realized I fell victim to fencing for privacy some years ago.  As an elementary school child I did not quite understand the construction of a wall and planting of "decorative" evergreens along the fence line that divided my property and the property of my new neighbors'.  They seemed friendly as they introduced themselves to the small community we have on my block of Bell Street, but their addition of this intentionally obstructive border of trees and a wall did not seem to match their first impression.  These people had barely taken the last box from the moving truck into the house before hiring a trio of Amish men to put up this wall.  Did I mention the presence of a fence dividing our properties prior to construction?  What inspired them to live in such isolation?  I cannot imagine I gave off the irritatingly obnoxious air the neighbors from all of my classmates' stories did.  I suppose I did break a few windows--windows on my own house.  I did kick a soccer ball through my opposite neighbors' screened-in porch more than once.  They never felt it necessary to build a barricade between my house and theirs though.  I played a lot of basketball in my driveway--alone--as the innocent, shy, only child that had maybe two play dates at his own house through the age of twelve.  The old neighbors never took offense to my playing.  Now that I think about it, the new ones moved in just at the beginning of my "dabble-around-the-house-in-underwear-despite-the-extremely-close-proximity-of-my-house-to-others phase" (still have not grown out of that one).  Maybe my pre-puberty, half-naked body got to the new neighbors within the first few days they moved in.  Seems like a reasonable explanation for  such fortifications.  Therefore, I would like to formally apologize, via this blog account, to my neighbors that could not handle the comfortable living style I chose to embrace.  To conclude this blog, I would like to encourage folks to interact with their neighbors to a level they feel appropriate, which may involve separation by a wall as it did in Robert Frost's "Mending Wall."  Additionally, I also would like to encourage those with neighbors to quit window-watching like Shia LaBeouf in Disturbia.