Question for American flisters, please?

[thismaz]

I am going through ice cream, making the little corrections to grammar and stuff that I missed when I was first posting and I came across something in my first chapter that brought me up short.

There is a passage that goes like this:

You just didn't shout in the streets of Sunnydale after dark. It was something kids grew up knowing, in the same way that they knew not to step on the cracks in the pavement, and it was talked about in the same way - 'watch out for the monsters if you go out at night'. And just like the cracks in the pavement, there came a time when it was no longer spoken of out loud, except to ridicule, but being cautious had become natural.

The question: Is 'pavement' an okay word to use here, when I am in a young American boy's POV?
Or should it be 'Sidewalk'? Or something else entirely?

Any assistance gratefully received.

Comments

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that, but our sidewalks are paved with blocks or slabs of concrete and our roads are poured and rolled tarmac.

[tabaqui]

Our sidewalks are the same, and it's maybe even the same sort of machine that puts down the material, but it's just...that way. Heh. 'Poured concrete foundation' or whatever, and 'paved over the park to make a parking lot'. We're just funny that way.
:)

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Heee, yeah, one of the things I love about words is the way we still use words now in ways that don't strictly apply, because when we started using them they made sense. When most roads were dirt tracks, a road like the Romans built, or a cobbled street, would be paved. So we still talk about paved roads now, when they don't have a paving stone in sight.
Gotta love the way the language evolves. It's what makes it such fun.