Frightened Texans

We recently visited a suburb of Fort Worth Texas to visit our son, his wife, almost 3 year old daughter and 8 week old son.  They moved to Texas in May where my son started his new job.  This was our first visit to the Lone Star state and to meet our new grandson.

Texas has a reputation for being big in all things, and my first impression is that it is.  The airport is plunked down west of Dallas and north of Fort Worth, earning it the common name of the Dallas Forth Worth Airport, locally called DFW.  The airport is currently under massive construction.  My son told us the airport boasts 28,000 parking places yet on a Thursday afternoon he couldn’t find a parking place closer than a mile from our gate arrival.  Leaving the airport was too much of a challenge for his gps because it was ignorant of the construction detours.  We circled the airport about three times before finding an escape route.  Our son lives only 15 miles from the airport but it took us 90 minutes to get to their home – traffic is also big in Texas.

We traveled on local state highways that were three lanes in each direction and about a football field space between the set of three lanes.  I was afraid to see the interstate system after being on the state highway system.  The speed limit on the state highway system was 70 mph but I don’t think anyone traveled less than 80 mph when they’re not bogged down in traffic congestion.

Our son and family live in a moderate town house north of Fort Worth.  You can see downtown Fort Worth which is about 15 miles away or about 90 minutes most days.   Their neighborhood includes large homes, duplexes and townhouses which are surrounded by an 8 foot high brick wall.  As we drove around the community I noticed nearly all of the neighborhoods were surrounded by brick walls.  Some of the neighborhoods were gated, some not.

We took our granddaughter for a walk and I noticed every welling, no matter the type, had a sign posted near the front door that the home was protected by security.  Our son’s home didn’t have such a sign so I asked, they had a security system but it wasn’t turned on – too expensive for a family with two small children.

The other curious thing I noticed was that many of the homes had a large black gate barring the way to their drive and garage.  The gates were electronically controlled and some even had a sensor so that when the owner arrived the gate would automatically open.

I asked my son if there was a lot of property crime in the area.  They’ve only lived there about five months and he wasn’t sure.  “People just want to feel secure.  With gates and security systems there probably won’t b crime.” He suggested.

What it told me was that people were living in fear.  I can’t imagine living anywhere surrounded by walls and having a home security system.   It’s literally the modern day castle, with moat and all.  How sad, I thought for these good folks to be living in fear.