My neighborhood may be the home of the working poor, drug dealers, and people just trying to make it through life but tonight I had a smile on my face because I live here. It is also proof that time presses on whether we like it or are ready for it.
A retired policeman used to live kitty corner to me on the right. I noticed what I surmised to be home healthcare workers come and go. Then I saw what looked like family members buzzing about the house and his yard and figured the old man either died or they moved him to a nursing home or hospice. Eventually younger people moved in and I lost track of who was permanent and who was transient. After a few months I saw regulars and they included children.
A man in an electric wheelchair used to live kitty corner to me on the left in the front apartment of a house that had been divided up. I hadn't seen him around in awhile then one morning when I was taking Poppy out I saw the landlord and some other folks taking things from in the apartment and putting them in the front yard to sell. The landlord told me the man was very sick and in hospice with no prognosis of recovery. Soon after new tenants moved in and they included children.
Now there are 5 to 6 kids all around 5 to 7 years old living across the street and they play outside together. Tonight I heard different little voices counting backwards from 10 down to 0 and I figured they were probably playing Hide and Seek. It made me smile to think that they were enjoying the same game that kids have played forever but now less and less since technology has advanced and become integrated into our lives. I heard my childhood in their loud voices as they bickered with each other and yet kept counting and playing. I am sure they don't have their own computers or cell phones. They have each other and their imaginations, just as I and my friends had. They don't have play dates. They just walk down the street and knock on the door or join the kids already outside. Occasionally one of the parents will step outside and look to make sure everyone is accounted for. I know all of this because I walk Poppy.
It has been a long time since I have heard children playing childhood games outside in a neighborhood and damn if felt good. My heart is a little happier because of it.
I miss that sense of community, living in a "village" as opposed to cut off from one another in our own little mausoleums. It breaks my heart a little when, year after year, no trick or treaters knock on my door. Nursery ryhmes and laughter should be as common as bird songs in the ambient music of life's soundtrack.
ReplyDeleteVery well put. As a kid our neighborhood used to be so alive on Halloween night and now parents don't feel safe letting their kids trick or treat.
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