Where in the World?

I grew up in a place where I knew every kid in town and most of the kids at my school by name. My parents insisted I work hard and get good grades so that I could eventually make something of myself; go to college. My teachers were dedicated to teaching me how to learn and being on the honor roll was something I wanted to achieve.

We played tag and hide-and-go seek in the court around the corner after dinner until after dark, when our parents would call us in, or our friends' parents would tell us it was time to go home. We rode our bicycles on long rides on Saturdays and Sundays, without helmets, and no one got hurt. There was a secret community rope swing that went out about thirty feet over a dry creek bed if you brave enough to try it - even braver if you rode "double" with a best friend.

The carnival came to town once a year and it was a lot of fun pitching dimes or nickels to try and win a pretty dish or bowl if you could land your coin in the dish. I gave one of those carnival glass bowls to my mom back then and recently found the same bowl (I paid a dime for) in an antique store for thirty dollars!

My parents knew all the local merchants by name, our police officers lived in our town and we knew them, too. The fire chief was the father of one of my childhood friends. The rest of the fire department was mainly volunteers and when there was a fire neighborhood sirens would be activated. Kids playing outside knew to get onto the sidewalks because it seemed like half of the dads in the neighborhood were piling into their cars to get to the fire station.

It was a small town, no crime to speak of, we didn't live in fear of being kidnapped or shot in a drive-by. We were accountable for our actions because that's the way we were raised and we knew we had the eyes of our neighbors and our friends' parents watching us. No one wanted to do something wrong and embarass our families.

Lately there has been a lot of discussion about crime rates, dropout rates, and childhood obesity rates. No one can turn back time but I wonder if those rates would change if kids could play outside (instead of playing video games or watching tv), ride bicycles again, and know they were accountable because the eyes of their community were upon them.

So where in the world was this small town utopia? That would be Pinole, California.