Bogus Gold

We did the "National Night Out" thing this evening. In our neighborhood that has always meant a quiet backyard gathering with potluck snacks, a big box of Colorado peaches donated by Bob's Produce Ranch, and a visit from the local Fire and/or Police department telling us how great these little neighborhood night-out parties are.

Since our neighborhood is largely composed of retired couples, entertainment is on us, in the form of our three kids running around like maniacs in someone else's backyard for a change.

Interestingly, some new neighbors a couple of houses down now have a boy just a couple of months older than our youngest daughter. And the formerly single woman across the street and one house down from us is now married, pregnant, and due in October. Seems us young'uns are starting to refill the neighborhood with children. And the older neighbors, being empty-nesters and grandparents rather than "you kids get out of my yard" types seem pleased with the development. Apparently this area used to be bustling with kids.

Not to play the codger, but when I was a kid we never had "National Night Out," and we still knew all our neighbors. Now we have it, and we don't really know them as well. Of course we never used to have the Internet and over 200 channels on television so the lure of a couch wasn't quite as strong back then.

Nothing terribly exciting to report here. We dutifully showed up as we always do. We made smalltalk, as we always do. We snacked lightly at the various fruit salads and assorted other snacks, as we always do. And then we bundled up the kids when we could recognize the signs that they were getting tired, but to unfamiliar eyes they still appeared rambunctious and cute. Just one of those things that I'll probably wish I had better memories of one day, but passes without much notice now.