I expected there to be throngs in the street last night. The neighborhood has seen a profound turnover in housing stock as the last of the original owners have moved out and young families are moving in. When we first arrive, we were something of the leading edge of that demographic transformation. The subdivision was built in the 1970s, and my generation were the kids that grew up here. Some of the parents of my friends from school still lived here.
But they have almost all gone away, and throngs of lean, loud boys are busy chasing each other on bikes while the girls set out tea.
Given how mild the weather was, I had every reason to expect an inundation, but instead it was a mere trickle, mostly little kids. My father, who lives on the other side of the state, noted the same phenomenon.
My theory is that it being a Saturday night convinced a lot of parents to host parties rather than escort their progeny around the streets. Based on the number of parked cars, we had a fair amount of that going on, and several families set up fire pits and had open-air buffets in the driveway or the front porch.
My grandkids did this – party/sleepover, and the neighborhood where it took place (which I know well) was designed for this sort of thing – large, self-sufficient finished basements with plenty of room to jump around or watch movies.
The parents can congregate upstairs and enjoy relaxing conversation in relative peace. My house in fact was designed for this as well and I’m pleased to see this practice coming back after the Covid lockdown. People are hard-wired to engage each other in person and a great many of the evils that plague society are the result of people who limited to zero interaction with live human beings in their presence.
I should also mention that The Crow is perfect viewing for this time of year, since it is a profoundly Catholic movie.
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