I Feel Like Such An Old Hag!

Yesterday while I was out shoveling a path to the car a kid approached me about using my yard as a snowmobile trail from the river to town. I said "no".

The kid was probably about 12 and polite enough for his age though he questioned why I wouldn't let people go through my yard and I tried to explain.

I told him that I had been taken advantage of in years past and just didn't allow it anymore. I told him a snowmobile had run over stuff in my yard, they upset my dog who is tied outside, and I got tired of picking up trash left behind. He said "but I am just a kid", I said "yes, but once there is a trail, everyone thinks they can use it."

We debated a little bit more, he tried very hard to make me see it his way, I tried very hard to make him see it my way, finally I just had to end it by saying, 'I'm sorry, but no."

I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about how my son had been treated in Albion riding his ATV and snowmobile ON OUR OWN PROPERTY. We had a little over an acre and my son made a figure 8 track, some jumps, stuff like that and the neighbors bitched and moaned about it seasonally. I always felt thankful that he was home, behaving, riding on his own property not hurting anyone but the neighbors didn't see it that way.

In the summer they bitched about the dust and one particular neighbor who was a selectman, came to my house and told me they were going to make a town ordinance that no ATV's could be ridden in town. (This was an abuse of his power as my father attended the next selectman's meeting and not only was this not on the agenda, no one else knew anything about it.)

In the winter the neighbor on the other side of me bitched if my son even appeared to have crossed onto his property on a snowmobile and I remember watching quite a scene go down from my kitchen window one evening. I saw two snowmobilers go through the back end of my property and onto the neighbors. Then I saw my lunatic neighbor, in his pajamas running through 4 feet of snow, arms flailing and even from a distance I could see he was screaming. The people of the snowmobiles stopped for a minute then continued down the property line toward my house. They stopped in my yard to regroup (they were lost) so I went outside and asked them what the neighbor had said. They told me he was screaming at them and then said he thought they were "that kid next door". Once he realized they weren't, he told them to continue on. That's how life was for us in Albion.

So after thinking yesterday that I am now the crotchety old ass that I always thought of my old neighbors as, I decided that maybe I would tell the kid it was OK to occasionally cut through my yard, provided that I had a note from his parents. Before I did that though I wanted to brush up on my snowmobile laws.

This is what I found out:

• Anyone who allows a person under 18 years of age to operate a snowmobile is liable (jointly with the minor's parent or guardian) for any damages caused in the operation of that snowmobile).
  

I read a lot more on underage riders and I have decided that I just don't want this responsibility. I was almost willing to cave in on the general nuisance of it, but now I just can't.

How do I deal with this year after year after year? I don't want to be known as the town bitch and I don't like thinking of myself the way I felt about my psycho Albion neighbors. I just don't know what to do.

BTW, it should be noted that I don't hate snowmobiles (except for the one I ran over). I even own one and find it very pleasant to be out on the trails in the woods where it is pretty and quite. I just don't want strangers driving them through my yard. Le sigh.