Spying on the neighbors

I sat on my back porch and peered across the small meadow and noticed the line of balloons including all colors of the rainbow. Spiderman was lynched about 12 feet in the air. He was full of candy and would later be the highlight of the afternoon festivities. Music was playing and the voice singing sounded like the Chipmunks, in Spanish of course. The children, at least twenty in all, were running around in little groups and jumping after Spiderman, and occasionally screams out of the younger ones echoed though the neighborhood. I couldn’t tell if it was pain from a fall, or joy that caused the screeching, but it overshadowed the chipmunk music by far. The music being in Spanish was unfamiliar to me, although I caught the words “Te Quiero” which I knew meant, “I love you”.


This was I assumed a birthday celebration at the Sotelos. They had a party of some sort every weekend. This weekend of course was no different, children running, and screaming, and me on my back porch watching and recollecting my younger years, although I don’t remember the excitement I saw here, I’m sure it existed.

I could always pick out Horacio Sotello from the rest. He had a large gut and his arms moved at a rapid pace, even though he was moving at a low speed, when he walked. He was also a very nice person and good neighbor. He kept his place clean and well groomed with his army of children. I could tell they were a tight family with all the festivities each and every weekend. This I just remembered was also Memorial weekend so that might have been the cause for the party, but I doubt that would call for a piñata. Or would it?

I watched as more people started to arrive. It’s like a contest to see who could park closest to the front door, or in this case, the activities. The sky was very dark with low clouds and the chance of rain was increasing, I found myself hoping that the rain held off for them even thought I was not involved. They always give me a laugh or two just watching from a far. The last time I recall they had a group over that spent the night in tents and the next morning playing Red Rover. I laughed until I cried watching the little kids try to break through. I guess they were all around nine or ten years old with a few kids around four years old thrown in here and there. The oldest and I guess the organizer was Horacio’s little sister. I guess she is probably around 30, but not much bigger than some of the kids. They would always take her to their side if they broke through. So she got to play on both sides a lot. It was a fun game to watch, I remembered playing when I was a kid at school.