On the Cul-De-Sac, Three O'Clock, Friday Afternoon

My family lives on the end of a cul-de-sac, in a housing addition about ten years old. The lack of a through street certainly adds to the seclusion and the peaceful illusion I always feel early in the morning as I walk out to pick up the newspaper. Of course, "peaceful" is somewhat a state of mind here, considering our community is right in the center of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex of a few million people! And speaking in numbers containing the word "million", I have noticed a distinct rise in the population of our neighborhood lately of little boys and girls, 10 years and younger. And everyday about 3 o’clock, and especially Fridays, when the promise of never ending weekend freedom seems assured, our neighborhood seems to explode in a cornucopia of activity! Bicycles zoom, roller blades swish, bats crack, hockey sticks whack, little girls chitchat and little boys shout . . and serenity takes a break! And anyway, with two teenage sons still in my house, serenity is never more than a figment of my imagination as it is . . . But hey, let’s face it . . If I really wanted peace and quiet, I would move to Utopia, Texas . . Gosh, those people are so far from anywhere, they don’t even get TV reception! . . Actually, now that I consider the alternative, I might just shut this computer down, go outside and play stickball with the neighborhood kids! . . .