On a not-too-warm, Sunday afternoon late in 2017 I went door-to-door collecting opinions. No trying to change anyone’s mind, gather funds for a worthwhile cause or sell anything.
It’s just a simple questionnaire … this should be easy! Once I started I immediately began doubting my sanity. Then I got nervous thinking about that crazy man in a hotel who killed wildly at a Las Vegas country music concert.
Couldn’t someone just blow me away because I stepped on his or her grass the wrong way?
Lots of dogs did bark. No pit bulls ran me up a tree. No one was rude, even the two guys who were too busy to talk.
I was sort of skeptical about the whole project but I felt it was civic duty. Out of my list of 21 houses just east of Glenstone near Midtown, only five people were home. Or answered my knock.
Three of those were glad to give their opinions. We covered everything from Internet privacy and minimum wage to abortion and marijuana legalization.
In the past I’ve gone door-to-door for candidates or petitions. But getting opinions is a whole other thing.
You’d better be ready to listen and try to figure what the person is saying on a one-to-five scale.
One of our two competing political parties was interested in what folks are really thinking. I don’t do a whole lot of volunteering so this seemed easy.
I especially appreciated the one staunch conservative and two semi-liberal ladies who discussed some of the issues.
It’s amazing how you can get a sense of how a city block is doing just by walking and looking for a couple of hours. I had basically two city blocks to cover. One was a dead-end street.
This dead end was in better shape. Fewer rentals, vacant places, yards with toys or car parts scattered around in dead grass and weeds.
Almost all the houses on both streets had front porches. If the porches seemed to be used, the houses nearby seemed okay too.
This neighborhood was hardly squeaky clean but both streets had big trees that gave a neighborly feel. So did those three folks who were willing to visit on an Ozarky afternoon.
Alex Primm is an oral historian and freelance writer who moved to the Rountree neighborhood six years ago from Mountain View.