2024 Friday — My Street

Sylvanwood Avenue stretched from where it intersected with the busy Rosecrans Blvd at one end to a dead end at a cow pasture on the opposite end when my parents bought the house as young marrieds with two very young daughters in 1950.

Our neighborhood was filled with young families. Next door and across Sylvanwood Street were my playmates who lived in all the little houses. Within five years the cows were gone and Norwalk Senior High School was built in the cow pasture.

The neighborhood trees grew and so did the kids. We could pedal our bicycles to one end of the street and then the other end and eventually we had permission to ride completely around the block.

Once a week the sweeper truck drove carefully up one side of the street to make a U turn and come down the other side cleaning the gutter of debris.

A sidewalk on both sides was perpendicular to the street and a great place to play hopscotch and even Jacks. When we played Hide & Seek kids would scatter on both sides of the street and hide behind cars parked in driveways, behind shrubs, and next to porch furniture.

The trees grew, but the street remained a safe place for the 11 years my family lived on Sylvanwood Avenue.

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka
and Chloe & Mitzi too!

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January Prompt #5
Street or byway, country road, dirt path, or major thoroughfare, what was out front of your house as a child? Did you cross it? Could you walk down it? Did you find things on it? Did it lead somewhere you could go? Was it lined with houses, shops, trees, or fields? // Close your eyes and spend a few minutes walking down from your front door look around. Then tell us what you find.