Several Sundays past I went to my office at 5 AM to catch up on work. As I stepped from our side door, I heard the clatter of horse’s hooves on pavement (I remind you that I was coming out of the house going somewhere, not just getting in). I ran to the front of the house and saw on Sherman Avenue three solid-bodied large deer. It was a beautiful sight and we stared at each other for what seemed like minutes, and the deer darted down Sidney and back to…? As we stared at each other, for just a moment I felt uncomfortable when confronted with this street traffic.

Traffic- car traffic, it is a part of life. Travel anywhere and you will hit traffic. None of us likes to sit in it, yet many of us when we drive our cars help cause it. Traffic, car traffic, it is now a part of life.

When you are in your yard or outside near a Tenney street, have you ever looked at a driver when he zips down the street? But have you really looked at him, to make eye contact? If you haven’t, and you are concerned about the speed of traffic in our 25 MPH neighborhood, then you must do the deer. You must do the deer. A driver will get just a little uncomfortable because you stopped in your tracks to look at him, especially those driving too fast. Here’s how you Do the Deer.

You are playing, working, relaxing in your yard, near a street, and you hear the sounds of tires on pavement, moving perhaps a bit fast- you know the sound. You stop and focus toward the sound. You turn to see it but a block away. You walk briskly toward the street curb (I do not propose violence, far too many people are making that choice for me), and with your body facing the car as much as is safely possible, you STARE into the eyes of the on-coming driver. And without a twitch, you are doing the deer. Many of you without rhythm should be especially good at this one. Oh, it is a rush to take all that driving power away from the cad who’s bad. AND you watch him as he drives past and then you can move back to your duties..until you hear the next speeding car.

Take a deep breath afterwards because the first few times, it can be almost too exhilarating -doing the deer. And it can feel really good spiritually too. (Speaking of spiritual, my wife and I will be forever grateful to the driver who was driving cautiously under the speed limit when our son, fresh off his training wheels, suddenly sped across the street without looking. The driver was able to stop in time, luckily saving our son’s life and consequently avoiding destroying ours).

I say, let’s make drivers in our neighborhoods who speed, feel uncomfortable. By looking at them to catch eye contact will tell will them one of two things, that "dhem tinnie Lepham neighborhood is crazed with evil eye residents", or "maybe they are staring at me for a reason." Our eyes must tell them that there are a lot of people who live in these neighborhoods, and we walk many places, so please drive accordingly.

And that is our point. We live in this neighborhood. It is our responsibility to show speeders that we are like deer and will stop to see and to hear the sounds of things that kill, like speeding drivers.

Traffic, it is now a way of life.

These are our streets, ask any Baldwin street neighbor who was charged a fee for the reconstruction of her street. You tell me if she doesn’t feel as if she NOW owns a part of the street. So these are our streets. We, who live in Tenney; we, who care for our children’s safety; we, who share many of the same familial and community values which lend gracious support to our world, as is evident by the glory of our residents who make an easy effort to say, "Hi," when catching each other’s eyes in passing, are keeper’s of the street traffic.

Yes, we should work to change legislation to encourage hefty fines to speeders in residential neighborhoods, research costs for adding speed bumps, garden corners, bike paths, stop signs, slow signs, reduce speed signs. Yet, I firmly believe also that if we make an effort to stop and see who drives our streets, we can begin to remind them with our immediate attention (action and eyes) that there are many kinds of people living here, and we are watching, and we are working to make speeding drivers, feel uncomfortable.

So the next time you are out and about, walking near our streets, stop and listen for the speeding car, turn, and do the deer.

-Mark Fraire