On the Mount with Mark Isherwood

I don't know where I got it from, it could be from backpacking, but my friends enjoyed the same type of events.

 
 

On any given weekend, we would party like any teenagers, however; our partying was to the hillside where we could see the city lights from some heights. It would be "Sliding Hill", Shell Ridge, Berkley Hills, Oakland Hills, Black Diamond Park. And it most always included a healthy dose of exercise…climbing hills, hiking, exploring.

 
 

On this particular night, for some reason we had limited time and resources for a party. Mark and I went to what I would call a 'mound' just on the edge of town and technically at the foot of MT Diablo. This overlooked a neighborhood near our High School in Walnut Creek.

 
 

As we sat there in peace...

 
 

I guess I never really noticed before because we were always much higher and focusing on being able to see other hills, cities and sights. This night, I noticed how uniform the street lights were. As my eyes followed the pattern of street lights, I also focused on the houses, each was so similar. One house was the same as the next, maybe one had a driveway on the right the other on the left. The front yards were about the same size, varying the type of walkway from the driveway. We had painted houses that summer, so I was able to zoom in my mind and realize the house floor plans were also similar and from our view, all very close in size - and the backyards the same; fenced in rectangle size.

 
 

Wow, I said to Mark, have you ever realized how the houses are almost all the same? Pulling from memory; I realized the cars I had seen were all very similar too. They may have varied by make, but they virtually were the same.

 
 

Why were people living in such a copy-cat neighborhood? Ahhhhh…. Similar houses, cars, location, similar costs, thus the people in this neighborhood probably made the same amount of money.

 
 

TRAFFFIC - oh my gosh, these people do the same thing, earn the same amount and all have similar jobs!!

 
 

They all get up at the same time to similar alarm clocks, get coffee from similar makers, dress in a similar fashion, get into similar cars and go to similar jobs - and leave for their jobs at the same time - TRAFFIC.

 
 

It was that moment I knew what was waiting for me and I did not want anything to do with it!!

 
 

But I tried anyway...