Night on the town, well, the block

Tonight was our neighborhood's BBQ for the National Night Out. Every year our neighbors organize it and every year we attend. It's a great opportunity to see all of the families on our street with kids the same ages as our kids that for one reason or another we don't see the rest of the year.

It's very social, everyone stands in the road eating, drinking beer, watching the kids ride their bikes on the forbidden smooth surface of the street. They love the freedom of doing just what we tell them not to do the other 364 days of the year. They roam in packs up and down the street instantly forming gang of kids who get along without a long history.

Our neighborhood seems to be going through a bit of a population boom. Each year there is at least one pregnant woman, at least one newly walking toddler. Without fail there is a baby that was born since the last night out. The parents talk about the home remodel projects, the work situations and the vacations. We talk about day cares for those with small kids and this year there was a lot of kindergarten talk since the next batch of kids will be hitting the public schools in a little more than a month.

It always ends the same way, as the sun goes down the kids are gathered up and forced to say goodbye to their instant new best friends. We collect up the plates and beer bottles, clear up the garbage and we all disappear into our houses again. As we leave we always promise we'll do a better job of actually seeing each other before the next neighborhood night out the following year. And though we have the best of intentions, we'll have to see if it actually happens.