Playing in the hood

This past Sunday was a great day to live in my little hood. It brought back memories of youth when Howard, Ricky, myself and others would play ball in the yard, run down the street to the tennis club to snag a few balls that flew over the fence, and then back up the street to one of our other friend's houses... just going all day, non-stop, with little parent interaction. In fact, my kids are even younger as I met Ricky and Howard when I was about 5 or 6. I reconnected with Ricky a few years ago and we talk once or twice a year. Howard, aka: Footloose, I talk to all the time. I hope my kids can develop similar life long friends.

Anyway, this past Sunday we woke up at our normal time. We went out to the Original Pimp House for breakfast for some yummy pancakes. Kitty Kat thinks the owner has a crush on the SacTownGuy. The lady is 60ish and really NOT a babe but it's a fun joke. She said, "hello SacTownGuy... so nice to see you and your crew...." She said stuff like that a couple of times about the SacTownGuy and his crew so finally I said, "I just follow Kitty Kat here... she drives us here... I just pay the check...." Anyway, suffice to say Kitty Kat loved mocking the situation when we sat down. Ok, fast forward....

We got home and the little girl decided to put her snow suit on over her PJ's. We have it out for an upcoming trip to G'ma's house in Utah. Oh ya, she wore her PJ's to breakfast. We are liberal so whatever the kids want is fine... except tattoos, smoking, motorcycles or marrying a non-college educated person. Anyway, so the little girl put on her snow suit and light up snow boots from last year. The boots are about two sizes two small so she had to take her socks off to squeeze into them. Hey, they are pink and they light up so she wasn't taking those bad boys off no matter what... until Kitty Kat found new ones this week at Target. The little dude put on his Star War's shirt and shorts (no sweatshirt or jacket as that would cover his cool shirt - yes, really). Ready for the world, they went out to play. The little dude went to his little buddies house across the street. The little girl went to "camp" with some of the other girls on the street being led by the oldest girl who is about 11. Let's say that was 10:00 AM Sunday.

With the exception of a couple of stop in's for toys, a sandwich, etc... they were gone until about 4:30. Our little court of 5 houses has 12 kids. The two houses just outside the court add 3 more kids. Several other neighborhood kids hang out in our court because of all the kids that live there. Out of all of these kids one of them is in high school (and he's a cool dude) and all the rest are between 3 and 12 with a large number between 3 and 7.

They would go to one house, on to the next, back to the other, stop in at ours, play in the front yard, play in the back yard, ride around the street on their bikes, go over to the park, ride their bikes around the court, then switch to motorized vehicles, then get their scooters... ALL DAY.

I really don't know all they did as they didn't play in my house much so I got to relax, watch some football, clean up a little bit around the house, go to the market, go for a run, wash the cars, etc....

Oh ya, a few of the adults came over to our house for a while as we were looking at places on the net for our annual Tahoe trip in the summer. Four of the five houses on the court go up there together each summer. The place we have been going raised their prices about 40-50% so we are looking for something else. Found a couple of sweet looking shacks up in Old Greenwood that looks pretty nice so we might cram in there this summer off the lake. The other adults are real nice on our court. All between 35 and 45, professional, like minded (except I think they are all Republicans) and we all get along real well.

I shouldn't make it sound like there was no supervision. No, no. It wasn't as if the kids were breaking stuff, lighting bags of dog poop on fire, blowing up stuff with quarter sticks of dynamite from Tijuana... there will be plenty of years ahead for stuff like that! There is plenty of supervision. At one point the little dude wanted to go play at a house outside of the court that is not one of his normal stops. His mom made sure that our little dude came to check with us first so we knew where he was. When they rode their bikes around the block one of the mom's went with them. Additionally, we all check outside from time to time to keep an eye on things. Is it as safe as West LA circa 1975? I don't know. Probably not that much different overall.

With all due respect to my peeps in East Sac, Natomas, Folsom, West Sac, Carmichael, West Roseville, G'bay, etc... the bottom line is that I really don't know why on earth people in the greater SacTown metropolitan area live anywhere ELSE besides my little hood. It's that simple.

Peace out.