Homeowner's associations

Facebook had a posting by a man who had to destroy the tree house that he built for his kids because it was against the Homeowner's Association Rules. The photo is not of that tree house.

The reaction was two fold.

• One, he agreed to the rules when he moved in. (true)
  
• Two, refusal to ever consider living in a place with a homeowners association.

My husband pointed out where he lived in Texas you could have a trampoline, but there were limits on pole height and color.

I'm of the second school. I wonder if people living within the HOA happily wore masks instead of shouting about taking away their freedoms. Not being able to select a trampoline pole color certainly isn't freedom.

We are barraged with messages on what to buy, what to think. In school we are told to obey or it will go in our permanent record. We get jobs and have to wear certain clothes, time our lives around working areas.

Years ago I had an IBM typewriter. Our repair man followed all of IBM's strict clothing requirements. However, they said nothing about shoes, so along with his suit, white shirt and tie, he wore sandals. He claimed it kept him an individual.

Over the years, I played the rules game where I had to. I drew the line on playing it with my home.  There are reasonable rules in life related to safety and health. Not allowing a fire that catches a neighbor's home might be one of them. Or wearing a mask to help stop the spread of a disease that has killed over 500,000 people in the U.S. could be another. Driving rules a third. 

Consideration of others could be guidelines not rules for living within a community.

The color and height of poles for trampoline? I don't think so.These are soul stealing and creativity stopping.

Homeowner's Associations in gated communities with MCMansions are an upgrade of Pete's Seeger's "Little Boxes" song.

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue on and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were but in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same,
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

All the same...Yuck!