Mercy loves parks and begs almost incessantly to go to one. It was a beautiful day, so this morning we left the house an hour before Abraham needed to be at school, and headed over to small park across the street from Helen Cordero. It's a fun playground with plenty swings and a lot of bars and ropes to climb and hang from. We were there about half an hour when three cars full of young men in their late teens, maybe early twenties, pulled into the parking lot. They made some exchanges, then lit up a bong or hookah or whatever their smoking device is called and passed it around the group. They did notice us, and at least stayed on the sidewalk near the parking area, but their second hand smoke made it's way over to us and it didn't take long for me to start feeling a little queasy. I didn't feel we were in any particular danger from the boys, but it wasn't an environment I wanted my children around, so we packed it up and left. Perhaps if I had been braver I would have told those young men that a children's playground is not an appropriate place for such activities, and if I had a cell phone that actually makes phone calls, I would have called the police. I was, however, neither brave nor able to phone the authorities, so we just hurried past them and drove off. We spent our remaining 20 minutes playing on the swings at Abraham's school, and when I drove past the park on our way home, the group had moved to some benches near the playground. At least they waited until we were gone.
After school today we went down the street for a play date with the Shaw's and Jolley's. While there were admittedly fewer things to climb on at Ashley's house, there was also a lack a drug dealing going on, so I'll call it a win.
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