Sunday Arvo

I’m starting to run outta stories to tell , well not so much run out but more stuck on the same old themes . I’m sitting out on the back deck , feet up , shorts only and a beer in my hand . Yep aptly named , ‘Gimme mo ‘. Still 2 weeks to go before school starts . The kids and I are in the water everyday , a pity the surf is too small . The humidity has backed off and the temperatures have come back into the mid to high 20s , perfect . Old mate still badgers us relentlessly , hence I’m out the back ,out of sight . The location , the isolation ( sounds crazy , when you think that we live in a rat race like LA ) sometimes you forget how close you sit to a much different way of life . You can take it for granted . You head to the beach , have a dip and then walk back home in 5 minutes . Families flock to the beaches here , often Hispanic . It’s an outing for them , a treat and a location that most would normally only see in a work environment , often as gardeners , builders , cleaners and nannies . Hermosa Beach is a very entitled location , we are in the bubble . Only yesterday I got a reminder that this isn’t the real LA . I took Leroy to a birthday party in Elsugundo . It was at the party I got talking to a fascinating guy named Mat . I probably can’t divulge all the particulars but let’s just say that Mat has a senior position in a school out in Hawthorn . Yes Hawthorn , a very different Hawthorn from the one in Melbourne . We got talking about a whole lot of stuff . I like to hang on to the idea that I was brought up in a housing commission estate ( ‘projects over here ‘ ) and that things were tough . Occasionally they were but in reality Tanti Park was a very close knit community with a whole tribe of kids that lived a pretty free and easy existence . We didn’t have any money but we played sport all day , stretched the boundaries and there was always friends at every corner . We thought we were in the hood and some thrived on the notoriety . Yes a few went off the rails but most kids have got out and have found a good way of life . You can do that in Australia . The school Mat works in sees kids that really do come from the hood . He laughs when he tells me that the police won’t come to the school only unless a weapon , ammunition or a blade is actually pulled to threaten . He told me of a kid he warned on his life’s course . At 13 he was set in his idea of becoming a gangsta . He was starting his own block gang . One day he was out the back of his house working out … he was murdered. Shot and killed because” you ain’t starting up a new territory of your own “. Dead at 13 . Mat raises his eyes with a knowing smile , ” kids have got no idea how easy it is for them here .Life’s cheap out there ” . He says many kids get murdered out there . He told me how he had to drive home while the LA riots were on , people trying to open the doors of his car as he sliced through back streets to get home . The freeways were shut down he tells me , a crazy scary hour of his life . It’s a polarising city , LA . A brilliant , dominant country but still it’s flaws are shockingly bad . I ‘l take Tanti Park any day over Hawthorn , Compton or as Mat tells me , ” Vermont Knolls it’s the baddest place in all of LA . ” Fuck , it must be real bad , a 29 minute drive according to google maps . Shit , i’l make sure I’l never break down in Vermont Knolls .