Sidewalks

Sidewalks are no longer present in most communities. But when I was growing up there were sidewalks on both sides of the street, maintained, I suppose by the town. They were cement.

Sidewalks were where one learned to ride a bike -- not in the street.

Sidewalks were where we put our hopscotch grids made with chalk and played and played and played until we couldn't hop any more.

Sidewalks were where we jumped rope, either individually or with a couple of friends. Do you remember double dutch? It was played on sidewalks when I was a child.

Sidewalks were where we played jacks --sitting Indian style on the cement and throwing the ball up and then scooping up the proper number of jacks when it was our turn.

Sidewalks were the place we played -- "Here comes the bride."

Sidewalks were where we walked from place to place in Runnemede. The entire route to the ball field was on a sidewalk, except where I had to cross the street. The entire route to my piano teacher was sidewalks except for street crossing. The entire route to anywhere in Runnemede was on sidewalks, except where one had to cross the streets.

Oh, we could use the railroad tracks as an alternate route to get from 3rd Avenue to 8th Avenue or to Clements Bridge Road, or to Evesham Road -- the only through streets over the tracks -- and we did often do that, but we could have used the sidewalks along the pike to get to the same place.

We used the sidewalks to roller skate -- where else? The street? No, we didn't use the street for playing in, or roller skating, or most of the time even for riding our bikes. The parents always told us to stay out of the street and we did, except when we had to cross it, always looking to the right, left, and right again before crossing.

I loved the sidewalks that were put in around the church -- they were a smoother cement that what the town of Runnemede put in and skating around the church was so much more fun on the smoother sidewalk.

Could we cut through yards avoiding the sidewalks? Yes we could and we did. But imagine a town with sidewalks that went to every other place in the town, no walking on dirt, or in the street, or half on the curb half off. It was really, really nice.