What were your next door neighbors like when you were a child?
My answer:
I lived in the township where growing up was lots of fun and also lots of grit.
Oir street was named after my father who was quite affluent in those days, and this was a source of envy, my siblings and I were at the receiving end. Notably amongst those envious neighbours, were Mrs Martin and her children, Mr Sunday, a bachelor who lived alone and Mrs Maria, a widow and her children, were also envious of us.
Another reason for the envy, was that my Dad had a car while the others didn't, so we were like the bourgeois. Mrs Martin lived on the opposite side while Mr Sunday and Mrs Maria, lived by the side, to our left and to our right respectively.
Esther was Mrs Martin's first daughter, she was as ugly as I was beautiful. I was nicknamed Adanma by my parents, (queen of beauty), this was another source of conflict between us. Of all our neighbors and their children, Esther was the one who gave me the most headache, though we were in the same age bracket , it was obvious to everyone that there was no love lost between us.
I remember an Incident that happened at about that time, Esther and I had met in another street where I was running errands for my Mom. She started raining abuses on me as soon as she saw me, for no just course, she called me rotten pawpaw, a derogatory name for a very fair person. The insult was more than I could take, so I pounced on her and a fight ensued between us. I battled her to the ground and gave her much sand to eat because I was very furious. People came to take me off of her and she was weeping like a baby.
When I got home, my clothes were torn and my Mom looking at me knew I had been in a fight, so I explained everything to her. From that day going forward, Esther never insulted me again, we ended up being the best of friends. I learnt that the best way to deal with a bully was by fighting back and giving him a dose of his own medicine.
This is in response to @ericvancewalton's post.