Mono Monday : : Our Street

I can't help but compare and contrast our current street to our former one. Magnolia Street, where we lived for 45 years, is a block long, lined with closely spaced houses, many of them built when cars were a luxury and houses didn't have garages. We could walk to the bank, restaurants, the health club, the grocery store, Peet's coffee, the doctor's office and the hospital, but we still had two cars, as did most of the the neighbors. We parked on the street in front of the house and despite the fact that it is lined with handsome houses, they are eclipsed by the solid rows of parked cars on either side. We were quite territorial about these places because one "stranger's" car could cause the whole system to turn into a game of musical chairs cars, but we saw our neighbors often and it was common to stand chatting with one or several of them on the sidewalk. It is well lit, and a walk around the block with our dog was always the last thing we did at night.

My picture today is of our long steep driveway leading down next to the front lawn to our current street. It too is only a block long, but it curves as it follows the flow of Santa Rosa Creek behind the houses across the street and has no sidewalks. The houses were all built in the '50's and '60's and have garages, so the only cars parked on the street belong to one woman whose garage is so full of junk her boyfriend's 'toys' that there is no room for a car. Because many of the garages are attached to the house, and the the houses are widely spaced , we rarely have a chance to chat with the neighbors.  it is quite rural and not possible to walk anywhere, but we do wave as we pass each other in our cars, even if we have no idea who we are waving at.  There are no street lights and it is pitch dark at night. Skunks, deer, raccoons, coyotes and the occasional bobcat have been seen making their way down to the creek at night. Our first night here we were shocked by the fact that we could not see a thing as soon as we reached the bottom of our front stairs. We now let Ozzie out the back door at night, but since he was "skunked" out there, he has shown little interest in going out without one of us or, for that matter at all.

A change of streets can certainly mean a change of lifestyle….