A Simpler Time and Place

Ok, so we all know my house is sweet, but I haven't talked much about my neighborhood. Children still wander the streets unaccompanied by parents here. Like they walk to their friends' houses and ride bikes and go swimming and stuff sans parents. People know their neighbors. They talk to them. It's like freaking Mayberry or that town without dancing in Footloose, only, of course, we can dance here. But so, I'm trapped in my house for the duration of the annual parade in celebration of the Fourth. See, I live on a dead-end street, and the only way out is down Name of Town Avenue, and that is now the land of people throwing candy from slowly moving vehicles, horses that stop every few feet for little children to pet them, and people loudly blaring music from 1984. (R-O-C-K in the USA, which made sense, and then Thriller, which didn't. Oh, and I guess there's also been some Christian Rock and some 1960s Motown, too.) And seriously, this is an affair for all ages of the people who live here, from tiny babies through oldsters. People are transporting their children in wagons. I think my neighbors actually went out to the main street to watch the parade and just left their house open.

It hadn't occurred to me that places like this still existed, really. I know I hadn't paid much attention before buying my little house. But it's really sort of awesome that this place seems to have held off some of the perils of the 21st century. I like living in a place where kids roam free. I like living in a place where the whole community comes out and makes a crappy parade regardless of age or lifestyle or whatever. And I like that I somehow get this even though I live like 10 minutes from a city.

Nevertheless, I do feel a bit like I'm in some sort of bizarro world that you see in a movie and that doesn't really exist.