I have been informed countless amounts of times that it is not a safe action to talk about religion, politics, or money in front of people you don’t know, or barely know. But that doesn’t mean that these topics shall not be discussed infrequently. There is a family that lives on our street, precisely four houses down on the opposite side of the road, who was always talking about religion, politics, or money in an abundant way, enough to “piss” anyone off within earshot. My dad would have frequent encounters with these people. He did not show his emotions to the challenges that were brought up in the “conversation” that the dads discussed.

I have lived within earshot of these people, the dad, a three-toes-on-one-of-his-feet seaplane captain, the mom, a masters degree from Germany in Mathematics, and the children. Oh, the children. It started with their eldest son, home-schooled, named Steve. He is one and one half years older than I am. His sister, Melanie, a bit younger than I am, goes to school. And finally the younger son, Tony, goes to school, two years younger.

I have watched this family develop over the years, add two more siblings to their family, (totaling seven family members in a one story house) and accommodate an “extraordinary” amount of people into their small, yet messy house. Some of my mother’s students would move into their house for the summer. I couldn’t even go walking in my neighborhood anymore. It was like living in the same apartment building.

Sometimes there were awkward hellos on the streets. I asked them if they liked where they were staying. Maybe they said yes because their room was the only one that didn’t look like a tornado had tore up the room, and deliberately scattered every possible thing in the room to scatter on top of things, or underneath impossible places to acquire or hide something on purpose. This born-again Christian family accommodates Muslims to live in their house. Ironic, no? But this doesn’t mean that this family is bad. In fact, this family is very smart, innovative, funny, welcoming, and generous. All in all, Steve is my best friend to this day.