The American Dream

I was a kid on Wilshire Street prior to the days of widespread air conditioning. So in the summer, everybody would sit out on thier front porches in the evenings. We lived across the street and a few houses down from my maternal grandparents and the house my Mom grew up in. So of course my Mom knew all the neighbors. ALL of them. And my paternal grandparents and the house my Dad grew up in was just 4 short blocks and one long block away. So if any of us kids were doing something we weren't supposed to be doing, you'd better believe my Mom and Dad would know about it, real soon. Oh, yeah, to this day, I can go down Wilshire Street and name off the families that used to live there, in about 1/3 of the houses. I'm sure my Mom could probably name them all.
Summertime on Wilshire Street was cool. you could walk down the street, neighbors would call out to you to come talk to them, neighbors might even shout across the street or across several houses to communicate with each other. Every night there was a new debate about business, the Vietnam War, politics, whatever. You can imagine the buzz in the neighborhood when word spread that a black family moved into a house two streets away. That set off a whole new set of nieghborhood discussions. More about that in another post though.
It is pretty clear to me the "American Dream" these days is to drive your car (with the windows closed and with power door locks) on the freeways from your job in the city, into your gated community in the suburbs, open your heated, attached garage with your remote door opener, and fire up your gas grill in your fenced in back yard. Admit it folks, this is the American Dream in our Great "Ownership Society."
Call me wierd, call me liberal, call me socialist, whatever. But my dream is to simply be able to walk down Wilshire Street in the evening on a summer evening and just talk with the people sitting on thier porches. I'm sure the Lafatas, Davids, Pingatores, Calcaterras, Therriens, and Roths are all long gone now. But in thier place will be Smiths and Jones.
Is that a dream? Or just a fantasy? I'm not sure. But I want to try to do just that this summer. I'll let you know how it goes.