The good kinda neighborhood

Its amazing what makes a neighborhood. I know a lot of people think it is one of those big houses, or living in that "elite" suburb, but for me what makes a neighborhood is the amount of kids. When we moved here from California there was a very good mix of little to big kids. There were some teenagers who would drive you mad with their music, their wheels spinning and their cocky defiant ways. Having little kids it was great to have the toddlers to preteens who ran up and down the street from school time to dusk and during the summer and on weekends from the morning till the last little bit of light (and then beyond some days). The noise, the bikes on the lawns, the kiddy litter (ha, I so funny!), it was a wonderful attack on your sights. Loud, annoying, joyful and life affirming. My kids are grown, and off to college but luckily the neighborhood has kept changing and morphing. Once again there are those sullen smartass teens and once again the toddlers to preteens taking over the neighborhood. The best sight to see is the little girl next door. They moved in this past year and she has been hesitant to ride her bike up our driveway. Somehow we have gone from having all the kids over in our yard (to the chagrin of our neighbors) to being those old folks who have no kids and might be protective of their very uneven broken up concrete driveway. I met her dad when I was loading up some furniture to take to the city college kid and told him we were moving stuff for our son and how nice it was to see children in the yard. He told me of his daughters fear. I told him of my lack of giving a rats about our driveway. Still it has taken her some time to drive up the perhaps forbidden driveway. Just now I looked out the window and have been watching her drive up and down the street with a twirl up the driveway. Sigh...now only if I could get her to throw some balls, dolls and fruit snack wrappers on my lawn......