I live in a rough part of town

I used to live in the better parts of town but I moved to be close to my kids. I mean real close - their back yard is kitty corner to mine.

It's pretty wierd here. People ride up and down the back alleys on all sorts of strange conveyances carrying stuff they find in people's back yards. We've already been broken into once, but I had an alarm system installed.

The kids decided they wanted to go to the 7-11 for coffee and snacks. Originally I let them go alone, but I got a bad vibe and chased after them. I was right. Up the street there were two cars parked and some sort of drug deal going on. Inside 7-11 there was a woman raving about something or other trying to get the staff to make a phone call to a number that was out of service. She's just didn't get it. She got really pissed and they threw her out. She was watching me and probably left 'cause I was there. I'm tall and I was wearing black leather with my official-looking access tags on. On the way back, we could hear a woman screaming "help me, help me" and breaking glass a block over.

I've been watching a movie called "On the corner" about street life in Vancouver and it instantly reminded me of where I live - the prostitutes on the street corners, the druggies passed out in alleys, people trying to hit me up for change.

My problem is, I grew up rich or at least well-off and when I wasn't I still had a support system that kept me out of the gutter. One way or another I was kept well away from street people.

Now I need to be one and I don't know how.

Why ask here? People with mental health issues often end up living an interstitial lifestyle. Certainly but for the grace of a variety of people I would have. I figure if anybody knew, people here might.

OK, so what's with the cigarette thing? Everybody's constantly hitting on everybody else for cigarettes. I don't smoke. Should I be carrying just so I can fit in?

What should I be wearing? My daily uniform (it's an Aspie thing) is black jeans, runners, longsleeve shirt and a ratty black leather jacket. If I'm feeling particularly edgy, I'll wear a black baseball cap with either military, police or firearms logos. Sometimes I'm wearing my access tags and I'm sure what effect they have. A police officer noticed them and wanted to chat because he had the same type. I banged on a wrong door one time and some poor girl totally freaked out because she thought I was CSIS or RCMP or something. It took me 5 minutes to calm her down. She advised NOT wearing the tags on the street so I usually hide them.

Lovely, the police chopper just buzzed the house and shone its spotlight in the back yard. We've got a pretty good relationship going. I'm often back there working on stuff at wierd hours in the morning and they're used to me and keep an eye out for me. I'd run out and wave but I've got the alarm set and there's another good movie on.

One problem is that I'm an Aspie. I just don't get a lot of the socialization stuff that goes on. The people around me seem to have this whole vocabulary of gestural language; the high-fives, the gang sign, complicated finger talk, glances and fake frowns and all sorts of other stuff that just goes completely over my head. I could insult somebody and not even know it. One time we were in my partner's workplace and somebody got all upset claiming I was "dissing" him. My partner had to explain that I couldn't "diss" my way out of a paper bag. Another problem is that I trust people who don't deserve it

I don't think I'd ever pass for a legitimate "street person". I'm clean, my face isn't particularly wracked with acne scars, I don't have the wino look, I walk fast and hard, I'm ex-military and former police volunteer so I think they see me and smell cop or some other sort of official trouble. The problem is, some people like to fsck with perceived authority figures and I don't need the hassle. On the other hand there's probably plenty of people who've avoided me.

Next problem - I pass for straight but my partner doesn't. We rarely get hassled but I think that's more because they give me the benefit of the doubt. Ironically, one of the few times we have been hassled was in a high-class restaurant and the head waiter threw the guy out.

Directly across the alley is a friend of mine, a current police volunteer and truck driver. Nobody fscks with him. Next door to him, the other kitty-corner to me is a group home for wayward teens. We've had surprisingly little trouble from them. The only real problem so far was an autistic kid who didn't understand that he couldn't bang on my back door begging for matches at 4 a.m. just because I let him have one during the afternoon. Of course between the group home and all the police volunteers underfoot (eg. my ex-wife and her partner) there's almost always a police car nearby, which may be a good thing.

The alley people can be a bit of a hassle. If I'm in the back yard, sometimes they beg for bottles. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to give them some or not. There's a lot of problem with vandalism in the neighbourhood and some of it may be alley people upset with neighbours who won't share. You also can't take your eyes off your yard for a minute. My son had his bicycle stolen and the neighbour a few doors down lost $10,000 worth of tools. I see the bicycle people riding around with all sorts of bizarre stuff. One guy was riding down the alley with a huge aluminum pipe 3 feet across and 9 feet long. I have no idea what he thought he was going to do with it.

We're fortunate to be a little ways off the main drag. The hookers are a few blocks over and the druggies tend to be further north so we haven't had a back yard full of used condoms or needles like some people nearby. The problem is the drug store, the 7-11, the gas station etc. are all in that area - and that's where I'm expecting trouble.

Any ideas?

why would you let your kids live there? if your wife has custody, you should be able to use this neighborhood as a reason to get custodial rights. imagine the influence on them as well as your own fear of the strange people around you.

I was able to afford to buy the house I'm in. She can afford the rent on a three-bedroom house otherwise she'd be in a dinky apartment with not enough rooms.

We have joint custody of the kids. This is a conservative province. She'd have to be a drug-using syphlitic whore before they'd take them away.

It's not hugely dangerous here, just wierd.