Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Howdy, neighbor!
My wife and I just moved into our first house in April. It is weird living in a house and having neighbors who are mostly neither transients nor deadbeats. Living mostly in apartments, those are the types one usually encounters.
Now, instead of neighbors who play their car stereos too loudly and hog the laundry machines, we have neighbors who walk their dogs in the evening and wave as they pass by. They have rummage sales (inviting strangers into their garages to look at their things) and offer to loan tools to their neighbors.
Here’s a story to tell you what kind of neighborhood my wife and I have moved into. We moved into our house in one day; taking three trips in the moving van. Between our second and third trips, one of our neighbors mowed our lawn. Is there a better way to say “welcome to the neighborhood” than by mowing one’s lawn?
And yet, in spite of all this, I still find myself avoiding eye contact with my new neighbors. I have caught myself turning my back as people walk past, pretending to be absorbed by a weed growing in my lawn. My Cheer is in my laundry room and my Joy is under the sink.
Now, instead of neighbors who play their car stereos too loudly and hog the laundry machines, we have neighbors who walk their dogs in the evening and wave as they pass by. They have rummage sales (inviting strangers into their garages to look at their things) and offer to loan tools to their neighbors.
Here’s a story to tell you what kind of neighborhood my wife and I have moved into. We moved into our house in one day; taking three trips in the moving van. Between our second and third trips, one of our neighbors mowed our lawn. Is there a better way to say “welcome to the neighborhood” than by mowing one’s lawn?
And yet, in spite of all this, I still find myself avoiding eye contact with my new neighbors. I have caught myself turning my back as people walk past, pretending to be absorbed by a weed growing in my lawn. My Cheer is in my laundry room and my Joy is under the sink.
