Neighborhood Enclaves

During my morning walk, I strolled into a cul-de-sac of duplex houses. Following a footpath worn in the grass of a backyard, I discovered a break in a fence and a trailer court which I'd never explored before. The trailer court has a chain link fence all the way around the perimeter. This fence certainly hadn't kept me out. Judging from the path worn in the grass, I suspect that the break is used primarily by trailer court residents walking to the grocery store.

Outside the fence were both the duplexes and a row of those breeder-box snout houses, the kind with small yards, gray T1-11 siding and, in the front, a garage--not all that different from my house actually.

I was thinking that the fence was an example of how people of different socio-economic strata isolate themselves in their own neighborhood enclaves, snout-house residents and duplex residents, not associating with trailer-court residents. Then I noticed the barbwire atop the fence angled outward. So, it seems the trailer court residents were keeping out the snout-house and duplex riff-raff. In most places the fence crossed the snout-house backyards keeping out only the children who might be playing there. Odd. Then it must be the owner of the trailer court who put up this barbwire-topped fence in some mistaken idea of safety. I think management of the trailer court should remove the barbwire. It's offensive, doesn’t actually do anything, and might have some value as scrap. Let's hear it for recycling.