Finally

When I was growing up, I was the only kid my age on the street. There were some older kids, and there was actually one boy across the street who I played Hot Wheels with occasionally, but I really didn't have anyone to play with regularly.

Because my parents were in their 40's when they had me, and my sisters were already in their teens, I heard lots of stories that took place before I was born. The ones I was most fascinated by were about when they lived, ironically, in the same city I live in now. All the neighborhood men got together to build fences around the houses, and they put a gate in between my family's house and the neighbor's house so that the kids could go back and forth freely. There were also stories about my sisters playing football in the street with neighborhood kids, and I saw photos of them putting on shows with their neighbors for all the parents. I was so envious. I really wanted to live in a neighborhood like that.

By the time I was a kid, my mother didn't like to have anyone over to the house, so we were pretty much hermits. It got me reading lots of books, which ultimately helped me in school, so it wasn't all bad.

Now we live on a cul-de-sac where the neighbor kids feel as comfortable walking into my house to see what's in my refrigerator as A. feels asking our neighbor when she's going to get some of that tube yogurt that he likes so much but I won't buy. Pretty much every day we gather outside, dragging our various bikes, balls and push toys out front. We buy from the ice-cream truck once a week, and the kids know the mailman. The kids ride each other's bikes and teach each other to climb trees.

It's great. It's exactly what I wanted when I was a kid.