Victory On My Northern Perimeter (Photos 4, 5)

Photos by John Hoff

Here is the lawn or, shall I say, "yard" of 416 31st Ave. N.

The word "lawn" implies something a little less (shall we say?) "rain forest-y."

And, yes, I know that's a bumper crop of poison ivy. That's why I took the picture! The kids usually played in the street, though, not the yard...so they weren't in much danger of getting any poison ivy. They pretty much rubbed elbows daily with dealers, hookers and Khameron NMN Lake, the druggie pimp.

In areas of 416 31st Ave. N. where people constantly walked, the compacted dirt featured old "Double A" batteries, corroded pennies (I pried loose, like, five) and little plastic do-hickies from toys, packed into the black, cement-like earth.

Nobody had bothered with beautifying the yard for, it appeared, perhaps a decade.