u/Dreamy_Peaches

I grew up in a big neighborhood. We had neighborhood legends. People that kids spread the word about and most kids knew who they were. This is probably super rare today.

We had a candy man. I never knew his name. I have no idea how it started or how long he had been doing it but the kids would come from many streets away to stop by for a piece of candy. He was very old. I remember ringing his doorbell on his screened porch and he would open the door to his house, see kids and go grab his bowl of candy. He’d slowly walk over and open the screened door and let us pick something from the bowl. He never said much. We always said thank you and left right after and he would wave and go back inside. It was Halloween all year at his house.

We had a bike man. His name was Mr. Byland the bike man. My sister was 9 years older and she used to always go over there to trade her bikes in when she was a kid. You could buy a bike or trade in. He had a shed full on the side of his house. He would take bikes and fix them up and if yours broke or you needed a part, he was there. He was a staple in the neighborhood. I had gotten a new bike for Christmas one year and left it unchained. Someone stole it. I had to go see the bike man since I used to ride home from school. Unfortunately his selection at that time wasn’t great and I ended up with a super old, dark green bike with beat up fenders. Not even spoke beads could help spruce it up. I went to him again when I was in 5th grade and ended up getting my most favorite bike ever. It was a white framed bmx bike and he put a soft seat on it with blue tires.

I no longer live near there anymore but I know of one lady who is still there. Her name is Peggy and she is the cake lady. She had a bedroom with shelves upon shelves of various cake pans in every shape you can imagine. She took cake orders and baked cookie trays for holidays. When Barney was popular, she didn’t have a cake pan, so she asked me if I would draw Barney on a piece of cardboard for her. I stopped by after school and sat at her table drawing. She supplied me with fresh chocolate chip cookies. She still does cookie trays but she has greatly downsized her cake pan collection. I have kept in touch with her all these years. About 5 years ago she asked me if I wanted dibs on any of her cake pans. I told her I wanted the one shaped like a Commodore computer and she sent it to me.

Did your neighborhood have any kid friendly legends with positive reputations? I hope these people knew how important they were to our childhood experiences and how loved they were/are.