With families staying home and slowing down due to the Coronavirus, we have seen things change in our neighborhood. Families are in their backyards grilling out. Dogs are getting walked more than even they want to. Families are out riding bikes. And the most unique, kids are out scribbling all over sidewalks with chalk.
Messages range from greetings and well wishes to bible verses and things that I can only assume must be a monster (little kids sure do have HUGE imaginations, and they don’t understand human anatomy at all).
Meanwhile, the sidewalk in front of our house was boring and bare. When we were getting some office supplies for working at home, we saw sidewalk chalk still somehow magically on the shelves at Staples. I think it was waiting for us. When we got home, I made a sign asking the neighborhood to “Chalk our Walk,” and waited.
I made a sign asking the neighborhood to “Chalk our Walk,” and waited.
We were not disappointed. Pelotons of kids would stop and scribble. Families out walking would add to it. And adult neighbors even joined in the fun. We got lots of Easter wishes and blessings, and apparently someone had learned how to draw a cube in art class, because they were drawn all over the place. My favorite drawing was the person trapped in the cube yelling for help. It just seemed so funny and fitting because we’re all stuck in our homes.
When we were walking home from getting take-out dinner from a local restaurant, some kids wanted to pet our dogs. They asked where we lived and when we said the street name, they exclaimed, “the house with the chalk?!” I’ve worked hard over the years to build a new front porch and fix up our front yard landscaping, but I’m most proud to be the “house with the chalk.”
they exclaimed, “the house with the chalk?!”
It's heartwarming how a box of sidewalk chalk has brought our neighborhood closer. It's encouraged people to slow down and scrawl out a message to a perfect stranger, and it has gotten us all outside more. Although the current state of the world is horrible, I’m quietly cheering inside that FINALLY everyone is slowing down and enjoying the small things again.