Saturday, November 29, 2008

She Went That Way!

Once again, life has come full circle. I am living with my parents in the neighborhood I grew up in. It is a temporary arrangement so I'm soaking up every second of it. Many of my childhood neighbors still live here. Most of the children that I ran around with still come over to visit their parents so I get to see them too.

I've always had good neighbors and the house I shared with the husband was no exception. It was just a different kind of neighborly. In that house, I could walk on the patio and no one could see me. Here, I am regularly greeted by one of the next-door neighbors across the fence.

The other day I forgot to put Gabby's invisible fence collar on her and I also left the gate open. As she darted, the friend across the street opened her front door and yelled, "She went that way!"

Someone backed out of her driveway and hit a neighbor's car parked on the street. How do I know this? I saw neighbors gathering out front so I grabbed my glass of wine and ventured over to find out what was going on. That's how we do it here.

The lady across the street has watched me grow up and I have been attending the same church with her for many years. She has noticed my car so the other day during the meet and greet portion of the service, she gave me a hug and said, "Welcome back neighbor."

I'm comforted here. Not just by the obvious love and support from my oldies but from neighbors and friends who look out for each other and have been doing it for decades.

2 comments:

cecily crossman said...

There's no place like home.

Anonymous said...

I am soooo sorry that I couldn't participate in the reunion tonight, I really truly reget it, but something came up,I will make an effort for the next one. I know what you mean about the close knit neighbors that we grew up with. The entire neighborhood may not be what we grew up with be we know that the neighbors closly surrounded by the ones we lived around would lie down and die for our neighbors. I know that you must feel truly safe right now living with "the oldies" as I know I feel the safest with my "oldies". Cherish every minute with them because you may never get to go back to being "young again" Love ya, Kim