Pop Calling on the Neighbors

When Pop came to live with us a little over 18 months ago, we were living in our house in South West Austin. Built of creamy white Texas limestone it is located at the end of a cul-de-sac flanked by two other homes built out of the same creamy rock.

Pop has always been very faithful to his walks and shortly after arriving he launched into his daily ritual. Because of the lack of traffic in the cul-de-sac, I felt quite safe letting him make his jaunts unattended. But wanting to be on the safe side, I would occasionally peak out the front door or window checking on him to be sure everything was OK. Usually I would see him making his rounds or returning at a nice even pace up the driveway to our house.

One day as my dad came casually strolling back in, hardly had he gotten in the door when my phone rang. Picking up the receiver I heard a rather disturbed voice on the other end, my neighbor to the left of us. As the story unfolded I learned that just moments before, her children, screaming at the top of their lungs came running to her while she was in the shower. Their terrifying tale was of an old man at the front door trying to "break and enter."

I guess the sound of the children's cries from the other side of the door caused my dad to realize his mistake. Moving on to the next driveway, ours, he made it safely home leaving behind the two very frightened kids and a rather irritated mom.

Not wanting to risk arrest and a jail sentence for him, I watched more carefully when he took his walks. But easier said then done. In a few days ring, ring, ring went my telephone again from my neighbor. "Oh, no," I thought to myself. The story this time was that his "breaking and entering" occurred through the garage. Coming into the house he forced his feeble frame over a baby gate and peaked in around a corner. Looking up from their play the children saw the same elderly face peering in at them. Alerted by their cries, mom looked up and all three of them shrieked in surprise.

Apparently this incident made a lasting impression, penetrating the boundaries of his forgetful mind, because, thankfully, the phone calls from her ceased. Thinking that these embarrassing visits had been nipped in the bud, I relaxed.

Several weeks later my door bell rang. Opening it I found on the porch my other neighbor on the other side of our house and beside her was ... Pop. Same story, other house.

Now the Lord must have been getting a pretty good chuckle out of all of this. In His mercy He recognized that aside from binding and gagging my dad I didn't have a rational solution for keeping the old guy from eventually getting himself arrested. Because soon we were to move out of the Texas limestone house into another on 10 acres of land. Set about a football field off of the main road, this new home has a nice little circular driveway out front proving to be the perfect little track for my dad's daily walks. And most importantly ... NO NEIGHBORS for Pop to go calling on.