April 25th, 2012 | 
Author: 
It’s cone season again. And although it sounds really delicious, I’m not talking ice cream cones. I mean the pointy orange kind you often see scattered around construction zones or marking potholes for the purpose of redirecting traffic. Orange traffic cones signify “danger” or “caution” and alert those in cars or on foot to navigate around or away from an area designated as being hazardous
Not on our street. On our street it means, “I’m letting my children use the public road leading to your house as an exclusive playground for my kids so don’t you dare go any farther.”
That’s right. We live on a culdesac and there are a few neighbors on our street that feel it’s acceptable to block off the road with a line of orange cones they found in our local Walmart’s toy aisle. Why? So their children can play “safely” in traffic. For the past few years, whenever the sun is out, the kids are playing in the middle of the road – and when we see this we can always depend on the watchful army of cones to be out there supervising.
Exhibit A: View of cone army from the safety of my garage
I find this weird. And so do visitors who have been halted just at the edge of the circle leading our house by this strip of neon orange pylons. Some people park beyond the cones. Some have courteously made the effort to get out of their car, move a few cones, drive their car through, then get back out of their vehicle to kindly replace them. Some wait for the cone-tender (aka the overly-cautious parent) to temporarily move the cones so our friends or family can proceed to our home. My husband’s elderly uncle didn’t know what to do so he just turned around and left (and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran over a cone or two in the process).
I need to mention that before we moved to this area a few years ago, we lived in a house that was also situated on a culdesac. And yup. Our kids, along with a dozen or so other children, played in the street – a street devoid of cones or other neon cautionary warnings. Basically (as a parent should) we just supervised our kids when they were outside playing — and they knew to hightail it to the curb if they saw a car coming lest they be flattened. And guess what? To my knowledge, not one child was squashed.
Perhaps the cone families don’t know that barricading or obstructing a public road is against the law around here. And when I casually mentioned our neighbors’ coning practices to a cop-friend ours his response was, “Call the department next time they do this. I don’t know why some parents think it’s okay to create a personal playground for their kids. It’s illegal.”
So, maybe once our vigilant neighbors are fined 1 trillion dollars for this transgression or get roughed up by the fuzz, cuffed, and thrown in the back of a squad car they’ll learn. I haven’t called the cops, mostly because I know I’ll get harrassed for blowing the whistle. So in the mean time, I will do just as my husband taught me: drive right over the cones and up our driveway.
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Posted in Life and Parenting, Really Weird Stuff, This Week | 
Tags: Diane Reiter, highway cones, neighbors, orange, playing in the street, problems, pylons
LOL! That’s exactly what I would do! Just run ‘em over! =)
Well, I’m glad we’re not the only ones that think that way!
I totally agree – ride right over them !!!
Have a great day !
Me
Yay! Thank you!!
That is just so bizarre. I saw your post and blog title when it was first posted. I intended to come back to it thinking it was probably some awesome narrative deriding road construction in Minnesota. If only. My neighbors are awesome (most of them) and part of what makes living in my neighborhood so enjoyable. This encroachment is weird and, well, just plain rude. The only possible pass I could offer is if all the neighbors had been asked in advance, and if there were some really good reason for requesting special consideration (a severely autistic child, a child who has decreased mobility, hearing impairment–and even then supervision by a parent during play). Call me crazy, but I think treating a public road like your own personal private property is pretty darn egocentric. JMHO
Good Luck, and I hope you have stocked your cupboards with plenty of vino during the “unofficial” season of orange.
Why thank you for stopping by to comment! And it made me laugh because well…yes, it is indeed weird. And interesting you should mention a child with special needs because there is indeed one one but honestly, I rarely, if ever, see him out in the street playing. And it’s been primarily another couple of families that do the “coning.” My favorite is when they line the cones up in the street then go inside to eat lunch, watch TV, give their hamsters a bath, change the bedding in the dust bunny cage, nap…(or whatever they do when they disappear). Not one is out there but the cones are still on duty in the street!
I grew up on a farm and I would go out in the pasture with my bike on the cow trails. My mom never put up cones telling the cows they can’t come close. Like your kids did when the saw a car coming they got the heck out of the way. Well I got the heck out of the way when the cows came. lol Some parents just drive me crazy. Oh and here’s real kicker….I rode my bike without a helmet and never had a concussion from falling.
PS my baby bed had lead paint on it too! I got a spanking if I misbehaved. But I think I turned out pretty good!! Thanks mom & dad for the life they allowed me to live!