"The Rain, The Park and Other Things" -- The Cowsills

Fact:  Susan Cowsill is still performing and has been a vibrant part of the New Orleans live music scene for over 20 years. It's amazing we have not met since we share several friends, including my former business landlord (also a musician). Been a few minutes.

The bench on the right of this photo is the one where we sit most evenings to have a smoke and discuss pretty much anything while watching our neighbors walk their dogs, play with their kids, flirt and fiddle with their phones. The scooter on the left is one of many you can rent, ride and then just leave where you want. The city does this in competition with a few private companies -- not only with these electric scooters but also with bicycles, Vespas and cars. If you have a cell phone and a credit or debit card, there's no reason to go without transportation in Vienna. You get in or on what you need, drive it to wherever and leave it (well, sometimes in specific lots). These scooters are everywhere. This is why Vienna is, year after year, considered one of the world's most livable cities.

I was on this same bench last night when I watched a baby (I mean a BABY -- like 18 months old -- too small to be a toddler), wheel around a curve on a small three-wheel version of a similar scooter and whiz past with his dad in a brisk walk pursuit. Dad was carrying on an actual conversation with this child, who had on a helmet and was in full control of this well-lighted scooter.

Y'all -- this child was at an age when most kids would have trouble walking across your average kitchen without falling down. But here he was running ahead of his dad and speaking in full (though short) sentences as they moved along. We see this a lot around here, not just in the park but also on the Metro (it's called the U-Bahn here) and on your average street. While the kids are attended by the parents, they have a lot more leeway to range farther and make their own decisions about stuff. We are also in a very urban environment, so traffic can be busy and crowding sudden. They manage it well.

UPDATE: Monday morning 8am and I'm at the grocery store getting the daily croissants. There are two kids, one about six and the other about eight, choosing and bagging baked goods to take home. They had cash. They left in separate directions, clearly going back home for breakfast. In the US, they wouldn't be allowed to go from the car into Kroger alone.

Summer is winding down and school starts here, as in most places, this week or next. A few are already underway and this has reduced the evening population of our park. Kids here are usually up later, so the park doesn't really start to wind down until 9pm or so and it's been dark awhile. I'll miss watching the kids and their folks and seeing the teenagers do what teens everywhere always do -- find out about love and kissing under a summer moon in shadows while sneaking a cigarette.

The voting age here is 16 -- the same as the drinking age for beer and wine (18 for the harder stuff). The attitude is the sooner someone is engaged in the process and making personal decisions, the earlier they'll be able to become responsible members of a society that works for everyone. Austria lived for hundreds of years with a royal family making decisions for everyone and then too many more shackled to and suffering the consequences of a fascist dictator. The idea is the more and the sooner one can contribute to society, the more individual freedom everybody can have.

Are there teens sitting around and swilling beer in the park? No. They certainly could and openly so. The driving age is 17 (15 for mopeds) so they could also get in a car to go someplace else to get away. But I don't think I've seen a teenager driving anything more than a Vespa around here. Lots cheaper and easier to just get on the bus or subway. Besides -- a family car isn't a given. No reason to have one. Just an extra expense. You can rent one from the city if need be.

In the US, we're largely more interested in personal freedom. It's more about what am I personally allowed to do. What might be better for everyone takes a back seat to, well, we have a Bill Of Rights about it. Our original Constitution wasn't enough for some, so we immediately tacked on ten amendments and we argue about most of them even today because some think they don't go far enough. Or go too far.

I am living in a place these days that uses its own history to frame what Franklin Roosevelt described in early 1941 as the Four Freedoms. The most basic of those, I think, is freedom from fear. No one here is worried about some yahoo pulling out a gun in a parking lot or shooting up a school or workplace. Sure there was a mass shooting here in 2020, but it was a political/religious terror event. There is no place completely safe from a committed lunatic. In the US, we practically hand them a weapon. I count four mass shootings in the US since last Friday alone. (UPDATE: make it five -- the most recent yesterday in my native Fort Worth). UPDATED UPDATE: make it six. Bend OR late last night Pacific time. UPDATE AGAIN: seven. Detroit. Sigh. Eight (Phoenix).

Freedom from want? The social safety net here is broad, from health care to housing and food. We see the homeless and some beggars in the subway, but I see more driving under a bridge in Dallas. Freedom of worship? I'm in a mostly Catholic country but surrounded in my neighborhood by hijabs. Freedom of speech? For everyone except Nazis. Austria's been through that shit and has no patience and can take you out to areas around here and show you why. Or just point across the border to Hungary.

We've gotten some rain over the past couple of days and more expected by the end of the week. Temperatures are moderating toward the Oktoberfest that will get underway about the time we leave for England in late September. We wore long sleeves to the park this evening and might see temperatures in the upper 40s before the weekend.

...so there's the rain, the park and other things. I wonder what happened to that flower girl sitting in the rain. The idea made 13-year-old me very happy.