when i was a kid there was this guy in my neighborhood named Jerry. he was 100 years old for my entire childhood. his house was up on a hill and he had a big porch he sat on all day from sun up to sundown. his front door was always open if it wasn’t too cold out and there was a big old fridge/freezer right inside where he kept orange crush in glass bottles and freeze-pops.
kids were allowed to walk right into his house and get treats from the fridge but the rule is we had to sit on the porch while we ate the popsicles or drank the pop and this is how he got us to listen to him talk about random stuff all day.
if parents needed to find us bc we failed to come home when we were supposed to they called him and he could send other kids out looking for us. it’d be like in the creek some other 8 year old would tell you “hey your mom called Jerry. youre supposed to be home.”
if you were home sick from school and your parents worked he’d watch you for free & everyone looked out for him. i spent a lot of days napping on his couch when i was little.
idk i know i couldn’t be a full-time parent so that’s my ideal role in a community one day. old guy babysitter with a porch.
to the people who want this: you need to connect with the elderly people in your neighborhoods. this isn’t just about childcare. this was about caring for Jerry too. and of course not every older person can offer this and they’re inherently deserving of care regardless. but you won’t know them or their needs and what you can offer them and what they might be able to do for their community too if no one’s talking to them.
- Tombow Fudenosuke black pen, various Tombow Dual Tip Brush Pens, Uni Posca PC-5M Light Pink paint marker, uniball Signo broad white and PaperMate InkJoy Bright 0.7 gel pens
the teen titans powersets are so crazy because it’s like. girl whose father is the devil, from the bible. girl who can make the earth swallow you. alien princess with laser beams. boy who can do a backflip
