Wrong side of the tracks – Prologue

You know those neighborhoods that are divided? You know the ones I am talking about. On the one side of town there are big fancy rich houses with nice neat green grassy yards, and the expensive flashy vehicles in the driveway? The paint is perfect all year long while the windows sparkle in the sunlight and glow in the moonlight? Yeah, I thought so.

Then there is that other side of town with the tiny houses, trailers and ramshackle low rent apartment buildings that are in need of repair and some TLC or just more money than the rich owners who live on the rich side of town are willing to spend? There might be a car or two, nothing fancy. Just old beaters that don't start most mornings and you thank your lucky stars when they do?

There is no such thing as green grassy lawns on this side of town because most people can't afford to live here already? They make choices like pay the rent/mortgage or eat and put gas in the car? The houses are all rundown where the paint is now faded and chipped and the shutters no longer hang where they should? Paint and maintenance are not a necessity when food or a place to live becomes a factor? Yep I figured you did.

It is usually figuratively spoken when someone says you are from the wrong side of the tracks. Only in this case there are literal tracks that run between the two sides of the city. The rich live on one side and the poor on the other. The train is a passenger train that runs the same two times of day everyday.

The only thing that brings these two sides of the city together is the local High school. The rich qualify in this school because it was built for them. The poor only qualify in this school because there is no other school close by. The law requires we all get educated and therefore the poor are now thrown in with the rich.

Imagine the rich people's reaction to this. Outrage of course. What good respectable clean cut rich family would want a dirty poor punk kid who can't afford to breath let alone live, go to school with their children? None of course. So Imagine if the rich kids were to suddenly notice the poor kids and decide to be friends or better yet lovers. Just imagine if you will.