A few days before Christmas, I was fussling and pootling around the house, pensioner-speak for being busy all day but doing nothing, when in the mid-afternoon I heard the sound of an angry male voice
Rob Rattenbury: Angry man disturbs the peace in 'posh' neighbourhood
![Rob Rattenbury](https://s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/nzme/b7c11b01-2ca3-4598-8791-05652fb26ae6.png)
An angry young man disturbs the peace in Rob's 'posh' neighbourhood. Photo / Bevan Conley
I watched this young man, very well-dressed and turned out, walk on past our house until a woman came out of a house further up the street and called him over. He disappeared into her house, obviously a family member or friend, and all was quiet again in our sleepy hollow.
What caused me to think more about this little incident was the sheer anger in the young man's tone and his vehement resentment about what he perceived as wealth surrounding him. I do not know him or his personal circumstances but he may not be doing well in society, hence his tirade.
Our neighbourhood is not the poshest in town by any stretch of the imagination.
It is a nice place to live and seems to have a community of hardworking and achieving people of all backgrounds, hues and beliefs.
There are probably more tertiary and trade-qualified people per hectare in our suburb than in most, pointing to individuals who are goal-orientated, persistent and therefore successful.
Outwardly, I guess, it does look like we are wealthy. All the homes have a car, many two, three or more.
The houses are well-kept but modest in the scheme of things. We need our cars as we do not have any public transport. We also have no schools or shops in our suburb. It is more than 1.8km to the nearest store or bus stop in a thriving provincial city. The nearest school, which is private, is nearly 3km away and the closest state school is nearly 4km away.
Modern reliable cars are a necessity in our neighbourhood, especially for people with young families as the access roads into the suburb from our town centre are not accompanied by footpaths, being old country lanes that are yet to be up-graded but now handling 21st-century traffic. They are not safe for young children to use despite residents driving carefully on them.
![Rob Rattenbury. Photo / file](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/B76SK3PDEOCGS6HRKZQ6L44XLQ.jpg?auth=681b8f63c77d42506a0ea293ff92ca19b0f80e126344f5e51ad56c1554c34e5d&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
The suburb is not new, with houses dating back to the 1920s. Most development has happened since the 1970s but the infrastructure is still, in parts, very much back in the 50s.
Getting back to our young man. Yes, he was under the weather and very angry perhaps because he was surrounded by triggers that upset him. He clearly resents selected others which is sad in itself. Will he ever be able to turn that resentment and anger into a motivation to change his life and hopefully his opinion about normal, hardworking good people?
He has no idea of the backstories of the people he was angrily condemning. Most in our suburb worked their way up to it. If they were 'rich', they would not be living here. Our suburb is a stepping stone for some who do want to climb the property ladder but it is also the home to many who have raised their families here and now live here because it is simply a nice place to live.
Clever people tell me that New Zealand is now more class-ridden than ever.
It seems that house ownership is now the measure of whether one has succeeded in life, a goal sadly becoming unattainable for many deserving people.