What's It Take to Make a Great Neighborhood?

Only you, baby, only you. 
Ah well that's not quite true. It helps a lot to have a few other good-hearted neighbor acquaintences/friends. I mean really, we're so lucky to have good neighbors in all colors. I'm thinking of Chris & Anthony and their three kids, who we've practically known from their births, and all the Halloweens they came to our door. Not even frightened by Janet's macrame skeleton Sam hanging outside. 

Or Anthony next door (another Anthony) who cuts some of my front lawn when he cuts his, saving me a few passes in time and effort. Or when I asked the first Anthony to help me build my steps in the back patio and he did, readily and quickly. Or the walkers every dawn and thruout the days and nites, a wave and hello here and mine back, knowing each other by sight and/or name, like the tall blonde walking her dogs past my house often. Marianne, who gave me a ride home when I was stranded years ago at a funeral service of a fellow coworker in Pennsylvania. 

Oh, yeah, you need you and a few good neighbors, like Allstate. 

Living in Trenton's Burg as a kid, goin' to the exciting food and smells of Italian vendors on Butler Street and its Festival of Lights --  parading a stature of the blue-caped Blessed Mother thru the streets in pomp and circumstance. Ah, and the massive fireworks after the procession in Columbus Park! A neighborhood where we boys played outdoor basketball on St Joe's court, or where it was safe for me to play in the dirt with my toy soldiers and matchbox cars when I was 7. 

We don't have to live apart in McMansions which are furniture poor. No, just a bit of sharing and caring is what makes any neighborhood worth staying in. A neighborhood where it's safe to ride our bikes as Jan and I did for years for a little exercise. Or walking the sidewalks around the blocks commenting to each other on what looked nice about the yards landscapes and their outside facades, and the efforts by their owners to "keep them up" like we also kept up our house and property.

A Neighborhood Watch volunteer component that I belonged to for years sponsored by our Hamilton police brought a sense of community and safety. Or the McGruff safehouse program originated around town by Janet and friends in the 80's to provide safehavens for lost or latchkey children. The township even gave her a public award at Septemberfest our huge annual communityfest, attended and enjoyed by thousands, similar to Trenton's Heritage Days Festival that came later. 

Or how about the block parties we had in my Ewing Township neighborhood off Scotch Road as a kid. Us kids runnin' 'round happy, with small vendor booths for great hotdogs and hamburgers and Italian sausage and peppers, as well as animal-looking balloons and candy corn.

And none of this costs much, not much at all. A little volunteering, cooperation and friendliness.

That's all.

Surely we can make our neighborhoods great and open to all again, like the thousands doing it today in big cities or small towns everywhere in America.
Oh what fun it would be to visit all those block parties and meet good people!

Do you have a neighborhood story to share?


Best, Rod

Surviving Bipolar Disorder in the modern age . . . a journey of Hope for the afflicted.
My poetic memoir Episodes available at www.amazon.com/episodes-rodney-richards/dp/0615914705/   

 

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