Sandy Hook is made for an idyllic childhood

• Sandy Hook is a tight-knit town, made for children and neighborhood barbecues
• Neighbors are puzzled that they did not know the Lanzas
• Now, memorials of stuffed animals and balloons mark the streets

SANDY HOOK, Conn.

- This town is made for children with its sledding hills, expansive parks and sprawling backyards. A toy shop and two children's clothing stores front the main street, sharing a parking lot with a children's music school. An orthodontist bedecks his office in Christmas lights and places a red "Letters to Santa" mailbox on his front lawn.

In the Lanzas' neighborhood, the devotion to idyllic childhood is even more apparent. Lushly landscaped yards make room for child-sized basketball hoops, soccer nets and swing sets. On Yogananda Street, where Adam Lanza lived with his mother and brother, the children gather in groups each morning to wait for the school bus -- the high-schoolers at 6:30 a.m., the middle-schoolers at 7:30 a.m. and the littlest ones at 8:30 a.m.

So it is puzzling to the neighbors that so few of them knew Adam Lanza or had ever seen him.

When the Strocchia family picked what father Len calls "the quintessential New England town" for his family, it was precisely for the schools and the tight-knit community. When the Strocchias moved onto Yogananda six years ago, the neighbors threw a barbecue to welcome them. Their daughter, Samantha, 12, went to Sandy Hook Elementary and remains friends with children who were in her class then.

Yet they never met the Lanzas who lived just down the street.

"It's a mystery. Nobody knows them, which is odd for this neighborhood," Len Strocchia said. "Everyone knows each other through the children, the school bus. The community here is kids."

That's why mother Jo Jo Strocchia said she was bracing herself for the names to come. She said she knows she'll know someone.

"I can see all the little kids waiting for their bus with the little tiny backpacks," she said. "It's just heartbreaking. I don't know how the parents will find any comfort. There are fates worse than death, and this is one of them."

Signs of death have mushroomed through the picturesque town of white clapboard houses and wide front porches. State trooper cars mark the driveways of the victims' homes, and flags are flying at half staff. Memorials of stuffed animals and balloons have multiplied.

Still, though, children walk dogs past towering pines and low stone walls adorned with red velvet bows and pine cones.

"It's inconceivable that in such a scenic and serene place that someone could conceive of something like this," said Magda Szabo, who lives around the corner from the Lanzas but never met them. "It's safe here, very family-oriented, friendly."

Dave Lapp moved with his family to the neighborhood 12 years ago from the West Coast. His children, now in high school, attended Sandy Hook Elementary. The school, he said, had "terrific teachers and a healthy environment."

"We selected the community because of the school system and what it offered," he said. "We never worried about safety. We've had one homicide in a decade."

The FBI and Connecticut State Police talked to the neighbors Friday night, he said. He had little to tell them.

"We walked by their house with the dog every day, and we don't know them. We've never even seen them and they are literally around the corner," Lapp said.

He hopes the community will be able to recapture the childhood joy it embodied for decades before Dec. 14. He hopes when the snow comes, the children will return to sled on their hill.

"We don't want to be remembered like a Columbine," he said.