Pleasant Scenes, But Strange

Today there was a "Dollar Stroll" along Baltimore Avenue. Stores and eateries along seven blocks were selling snacks and trinkets for a buck. This was a Thursday afternoon and it was not a holiday.

None of what I've stated so far would stir any interest in me, nor would I expect any exceptional turnout. Not a holiday, not a weekend. BUT in the twenty-two years I've been haunting this neighborhood, I have never seen, nor heard of, foot traffic to equal even one tenth of what I saw along the sidewalks today. I kept needing to look again; to keep snapping pictures. There were lines a block long outside shops that, not so long ago, would go vacant for years on end. People I've never seen before were buying samosas, ice cream cones, and cat toys. I was saying to myself, I can't really be seeing this. What was the number? Ten thousand? Fifteen or twenty thousand? I don't know --I forgot to bring my helicopter. The weather was perfect: sunny, warm, not especially humid. Am I wrong to find it all eerie?