{"id":38309,"date":"2022-11-20T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T01:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=38309"},"modified":"2022-11-14T16:01:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T21:01:08","slug":"matts-mishaps-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/matts-mishaps-46\/","title":{"rendered":"MATT\u2019S MISHAPS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cServing overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Matt <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Front Porch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you relax outside on a front porch or on a backyard deck?  In the past in many Midwest communities, life took place on the front porch.  Front porches were not set back a great many feet from the road or sidewalk.  It would have made it too difficult to chat with neighbors passing by or to watch what people were doing.  I spent many of my growing up time watching what my neighbors were up to.  We had a neighbor who was a police officer and he had an outdoor kennel for his barking and growling K-9, which scared all the kids.  Another neighbor kept us occupied watching their two older sons.  They had a little Yamaha Chappy motorbike with short, chubby tires and they would create ruts in the yard from circling the house so many times as they raced around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overseas we live in an apartment with windows that face out on the opposite side of the front door, so I guess the windows face the backyard, but we have no yard.  Our apartment building is alongside a two-lane street that is a dead end.  On the other side of the street is a high school playground area.  Watching what happens in our overseas \u201cbackyard\u201d is quite entertaining.  In our culture overseas, you should never say anything if someone is doing something they shouldn\u2019t, as they would vandalize the outside of your apartment and police do not respond to complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Local pizza delivery boys use little 50cc motorbikes to get to customers.\u00a0 One delivery boy likes to park (hide) outside our windows on a back street to avoid they eyes\u2019 of his boss and catch up on social media.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We have had a frozen fish seller who would drain his smelly ice and slush from his refrigerated truck at the end of the day outside our windows.  We have had high school dropouts selling drugs through the chain link fence to former classmates during their gym hour.  We had a group of over a dozen teen boys who\u2019d organize informal boxing matches outside our windows on the street.  The teens only had one set of gloves, so one boxer punched right-handed and the other boxer punched left-handed.  It was a bit comical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some months back I was talking to a local who was dreamily talking about what he would do if he ever went to America.  I anticipated a typical answer like \u201cwalk on the beaches in Miami,\u201d \u201cvisit Hollywood,\u201d or \u201cstroll along the busy streets of New York City.\u201d  However, he responded by saying \u201csit on a big American front porch, drink coffee, and talk to neighbors as they pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something similar ever happen to you.   Contact me and let me hear your story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mattsmishaps@gmail.com    Matt\u2019s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN  46741<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cServing overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,25,13165],"tags":[16396,13025],"class_list":["post-38309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-churches","category-columns","category-matts-mishaps","tag-front-porch","tag-matts-mishaps"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Matt-Sell-3.jpg?fit=318%2C388&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-9XT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 13:24:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38311,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38309\/revisions\/38311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}