An Evening in Our Neighhorhood

When the weather is nice our neighborhood teams with life in the evenings.  Sometimes it's just the kids out riding bike or scooters and sometimes it's both kids and moms hanging out.  The kids fill the street with their playing and the moms congregate on the wall to visit.

Tonight was an extra full night.  First it started with just our kids going down.  I brought my knitting but had to abandon it when Malachi ran up to get Monopoly Deal to teach his friend.  So, three boys had a card game going with me helping and during that time when I was distracted Sonora and her little friend set up house on the nice marble steps and were making really dusty food.  They made a mess!!  They had gathered leaves from the plants nearby and dirt from under the trees and were mixing it all around on their little rug on the steps.  The mess I didn't mind, only it was right in front of the door so I had to kick them out of that home and send them to cook on the street.  Meanwhile two ladies with their babies in strollers strolled by.  They stopped and we visited a long while.  Then my downstairs neighbor came up with her little boy and we were four.  Then my across the hall neighbor came home from somewhere and she went up to make tea and brought it down for all of us to drink.  Some people left, others came, the front of our building being the hang out for this evening.  The kids had a good game of "traffic" going, sharing bikes and scooters and more or less getting along really well.  We carried on like that  for 2 1/2 hours.  Tonight for all of us, one at time, the hungry tummies of our children drew us inside to cook an evening meal.  And even though we are inside for the evening, with our windows open, I can still hear all those sounds of the neighborhood outside.  The sound of silverware on plates, a child's cry, a group of young people chatting as they walk by, and crickets in the night.