Pattersonland revisited; what happens afterward.

One of the key objections to any large-scale display like John has in mind is that it becomes an attraction to the curious. A lot of perfectly decent, well-meaning people would have grave misgivings about having his display forced on them because, unlike him, they can readily picture the traffic generated after he brings his screwball fantasy to life. They also know him well enough to realize that he won't take REASONABLE steps to protect his HO-scale opium dream. He'll either leave it open to all comers and sob when the local tough boys smash things or go all paranoid and surround it with razor-wire and curse the memory of Princess Diana for her campaign against anti-personell mines. The reson I can say this with some confidence is that while the Pattersons don't really seem to know much (or care) about the people in their immediate vicinity, their neighbors are probably dangerously well informed about them. After all, the neighborhood practically grew up around them so the locals would have to have a basic knowledge of their family dynamics even IF they weren't so loud and stupid.