the Richeys' bricks

Keith and Dorothy Richey, a lovely retired couple, live down at the corner. They've lived there as long as I can remember. If they moved in after we did, I don't recall, as I was busy changing diapers and making dinner.

The Richeys' corner just so happens to be a bus stop for the public school kids. When my kids were in school, that corner resembled a school playground every morning. Girls giggling and generally behaving well, and boys, well, being boys. Smacking each other with book bags. Yelling and whooping as boys do. Pushing - and yes I witnessed this - each other into the street. The other thing the kids did was to hold onto the street sign pole and mindlessly run around and around like hamsters on a wheel. This activity effectively killed a circle of grass there on the Richeys' corner. I'd remind my own children to refrain from this, because it was someone's yard, but seeing as how most kids suffer from amnesia and/or hearing loss, the spinning continued.

One day I saw Keith and Dorothy out by the street sign. Oh, dear: they're trying to plant more grass on that sad spot. But no.

The Richeys had assembled a small pile of bricks and were fitting them together on the ground around the pole. They fashioned a neat miniature "patio" for the kids to pound their careless little feet upon.

No calling parents. No fist-shaking. No yelling. No threats. Just a simple solution that conveyed an understanding of kids and a love-your-neighbor attitude. And it told this parent "it's no big deal."

All these years later, the bricks remain. And every time I pass, I think of how some people have it right in life. The Richeys know what's important and what's not. They showed that getting on a high horse about little stuff like dead grass is a waste of time. They cared more about children and being a good neighbor than their lawn.

Thank you, Richeys. I want to be like you, off my high horse.

Note: as I was taking photos of their bricks, Dorothy stuck her head out the door. "Whatcha doing, Barb?" And so we chatted and I met their new puppy, Dawn.