Old house, Second house, Rental house, New rules

This was my first Christmas break spent at my family's new (even though we've had it for 10 years) official home in Cherokee, Alabama, right by Pickwick Lake of the Tennessee River. They finally sold our house in Memphis in May of 2008 after being on the market for over 3 years. They ended up switching houses with a couple they knew from church, who had always liked our house.

The house they bought is about half the size of our old one, half the price, half everything, really. And, it is only one subdivision over from our old house. They decided to rent the house out and happened to found a renter right away.

The renter is a 26 year old woman, barbie doll-looking, as my mom described her, "in dental school" (but not really), has a pit bull dog, about which my parents have received phone calls from neighbors complaining of it barking and being scary, has a big black Cadillac, and a big black boy friend. Everything about the situation seemed a little sketchy, and the only thing you could really infer was that she either inherited a butt-load of money, or something else.

It turned out to be the "something else." My parents received several phone calls the other day informing them that there was a huge drug bust that morning at our rental house: 10 cop cars in front of the house, arrest of the barbie, and many other drug busts on the same day :

INDICTMENT, ARRESTS AND SEARCH WARRANTS

IN MARIJUANA AND MONEY LAUNDERING CONSPIRACY CASE

read the report.

So, we had a criminal living in our rental house. Wow. It's sad and scary, but I sort of had to laugh, too. For anyone who is from Memphis, this is something one would not be particularly shocked about, but unlikely for Cordova, a relatively newish suburb of Memphis (maybe 20 years old), that just recently got dragged into the city limits after 10 years of fighting it. I mean, this is like the West Town of Knoxville, and I was pretty surprised it happened in lil' Cordova.

Cities move. Crime moves. Crime happens. Shit happens.

Sometimes I miss Memphis. Sometimes I don't. But I grew up there, my memories are there, and part of me still lives there. I still love Memphis.