Someone mentioned Stepford

When they were visiting recently someone mentioned that the neighborhood we lived in is a bit like the Stepford movie. They are right in a sense - the houses are all nice, the lawns are all very well manicured, everyone we have met seems very family centered and every evening you can find the neighbors walking around with their dogs and stopping to chat with one another. It is how we have met many neighbors - either by doing the walking with Jake or just being in our yard and having a neighbor on their walk stop to introduce themselves. Now, there don't seem to be perfect people with perfect lives in perfect clothes, delivering perfect baked goods (although one neighbor did bring by some delicious "from scratch" brownies - yum yum), but there do seem to be many who love living here and appear dedicated to making it a very family first section of life. Needless to say though, the "Stepford" joke was in our head when we attended the neighborhood 4th of July parade. We were informed (through new friends & the neighborhood bulletin) that we could enter the parade by walking, biking, driving our golf cart (which we do not have) or just sitting on the side rooting the parade participants on. We divided up - Spidey, SuperStar and I rode bikes, Babster and BigGuy watched. We had to register the kids for the judging - yes there were awards - and then we waited in front of the grandstand - yes there was a stage with a giant crane that held a giant flag over the stage - where the band played while a few of the neighbors showed their talent through singing patriotic songs and one hired singer sang a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, a group of kids said the Pledge of Alligience and we were off and going. First we were announced one at a time in front of the judges and then we were off around the neighborhood where we were waved at and clapped for. At our own house we stopped to watch the rest and the kids collected candy from the cars and fire engines. It was fun - there were ponies, popsicles and someone said an air show (although we didn't see it and I think they were joking). However, from the eyes of an outsider it might have seemed a bit Stepford. Maybe we should watch that movie again - it was all pretty fun.