In our neighborhood

… the fire chief lives on the corner of our street. He cooks on a charcoal grill at least two days a week, regardless of the season. He used to have a big squad car with “CHIEF” painted on the side, but he has traded it in for a manly SUV. When the volunteer fire siren goes off, it’s just a matter of moments before that SUV rolls quickly past with him in the driver’s seat, wearing his fluorescent green sweatshirt. He and his wife had a baby girl last year, and Ted is inexplicably afraid of her stroller.

… there are flags of all sorts flying from people’s houses. Collectively, we support the Flyers, the Seminoles, America, spring, and a duck in galoshes.

… there is a telephone pole that was completely taken over by morning glories. When I walked in the morning, before we got Ted, I always loved to see how its flowers faced the rising sun just over the hill toward the high school. This year, I realized sadly that someone had “cleaned” the pole, so there are no more morning glories.

… a publication called The Bulletin is tossed into people’s driveways. No one seems to want it, judging from how long the copies lie languishing on the sidewalk, but how to stop the distribution appears to be a mystery.

… the air smells like spaghetti sauce, chimney smoke, freshly-cut grass, or hamburgers, depending on the time of year.

… there is a preponderance of lawn ornaments in the shape of deer or sheep with holes cut into their backs to hold potted plants. I don’t understand those creepy things at all.

… the school buses tend to honk their horns if the kids aren’t at the end of their driveways. If I’m close enough and unaware, it makes me yelp and jump out of my skin.

… the ice cream truck began its rounds in the last weekend of March. It plays a mangled version of “Pop Goes the Weasel,” and it comes to our street at 6:30 on the dot every night. I’ve never bought anything from an ice cream truck before, so I am always tempted to raid the coin jar and flag down the driver, but I’m not sure how that would look. Even then, if I couldn’t get a strawberry Good Humor bar, I would be really disappointed.

… there is a car with a bumper sticker that is so faded that it reads only, “God Save.” I always wonder what it originally read. God Save America? God Save the Philadelphia Eagles? God Save Me Money?

… a group of high school girls walks to school with one of their moms, who walks a yellow Lab named Friday. The girls always squeal at Ted when they see him coming, and he starts wagging his tail even before I can see them coming.