The Stop Sign

Every evening from May to October, Gary and I sit in our glider chairs on the front porch and watch the world go by our little corner of Eastside Costa Mesa. Our neighbors call us "the porch people." The parade is incessant - moms pushing strollers, couples walking dogs, older folks getting some evening exercise, kids on beach cruiser bikes coming home from the beach, our neighbor, John, doing laps around the block on his old motorcycle, another neighbor bringing take-out food home on his Harley, and dozens of cars and trucks, even school buses, going way too fast in a 25 mph zone to bypass the stop signs on the main route across town, just one block north of us. The walkers and bicyclists wave or say hi and some stop to chat awhile. The car drivers flip us off when we yell at them to slow down.

Good news! The car stress ended today. No more yelling at the law-breakers. After months of working with our Costa Mesa City Government to do something about the speeders on our street, stop signs were installed in front of our home at 9 o'clock this morning! Earlier this year, Gary attended a City Council Meeting with our neighbor, Bunker Hill, to ask the council members to help us resolve the problem. Shortly after that meeting, the Mayor came to check out our corner with Bunker and me. There's been a lot of traffic research going on all summer and "Good Citizen Gary" has been interviewed and featured in newspaper articles more than once. Last week we received a letter from the City stating that we would get our stop signs at last. Life will be much safer for our grandchildren and all the other kids who play in the colorful front yards along Flower Street.

It was a great day for my grandson, Keegan, to be here with me while his mommy and daddy went to a doctor's appointment, because he got to see all the action out front. The city workers let us go out into the street and watch them paint the white sign on the asphalt. Keegan, almost 3 now, was thrilled when the big red stop sign went up. He knew exactly what it was and kept saying, "STOP sign" over and over. The workers laughed. They were a lot nicer than that nasty flight attendant who insisted a toddler stop saying "Bye-bye plane," and ended up throwing the mother and child off the airplane a couple of months ago. Nobody told Keegan to stop saying "STOP." Definitely a good day here.

And to make matters even better, notice that I said "our grandchildren" in an earlier paragraph. It's safe to say today that our beloved son and daughter-in-law are expecting their second child in March. Nobody could be more delighted than all the grandparents, especially Gary and me. I never expected to be a granny, so having Keegan around has been the greatest joy of my life so far. It's the kind of joy that will never need a STOP sign.