Crowded

Crowded. 

I live in a crowded community. A rushed community where everyone is in such a hurry that they are quick to anger when someone makes a driving error. They honk their horns, make unsightly hand gestures, and race past you aggressively to get the spot they think they deserve. 

Now it wasn't always this way. Thirty years ago it was a sleepy community with only one blinking traffic light. Cars would move over to the shoulder to allow others to pass. It was a place where you would run into familiar people everywhere you went. 

Now that rarely happens. We are a community of strangers. Construction is everywhere in an attempt to cram in a few more people. Apartment buildings are now four stories high with massive parking garages. The apartments sit only inches from the road taking advantage of valuable real estate. 

I find myself taking the back roads unknown to people new to the community. Even during the weekdays the traffic is unbearable. Cars competing for lanes, rushing through parking lots, and all trying to be the first in line. 

When we first moved here we were one of five thousand. Now we are one of one hundred fifty thousand plus. Where there used to be one elementary and one high school, now I've lost count as new schools are constructed yearly. We used to gather as one community for the annual homecoming parade watching the hand pomped floats as they traveled down Main St.   Candy falling like rain to the delight of the children. 

We are told unconvincingly that we still have that "small town feel," but to those of us who have experienced it we know it not to be true. Now the conviences are many, the restaurants unending, and the landscaping is beautiful, but I long for the days where the hand gesture shared was a wave, followed by a smile.