We had a lovely gathering of neighbors yesterday — about 40 people met, grilled, drank, ate, and talked in the commons at the end of our driveway. The weather was beautiful, the beer stayed cold, and as far as I know the potato salad didn’t send anyone to the emergency room. It turns out the folk here are relaxed, charming and have incredibly-well-behaved-but-non-robotic kids (I know, it sounds more like Lake Wobegon all the time).
My neighbor Vicki and I have been talking about doing this for so long that it seems strange to have actually done it. A couple weeks ago, we made a flyer and spent a Saturday afternoon walking around the neighborhood knocking on doors, introducing ourselves, and explaining about the barbeque and our desire to connect people in the ‘hood as much as possible. When people weren’t home, we left flyers, and I know there was at least one household that didn’t open the door because they thought we were selling magazine subscriptions or something (yep, Mr. Neighbor Dude, I did see you peering through your fence at us. You missed a good party and if there’s an apocalypse you won’t know everyone’s name…).
The knocking-on-doors thing is actually hard for me: I can be quite shy in situations where I am having to justify my presence/explain myself/”sell” in some way, and although I have good strategies for overcoming that shyness, they take a lot of energy. So how nice to have so many people respond by turning up with their kids and their salads and desserts, and — especially — prepared to have a nice time and meet some new people.
It’s funny how easy it is to remain disconnected even in such a place as this, where people are aware of one another and have good intentions. Connection is a process, and I hope yesterday was a good step in expanding it. We collected contact information, and now we’ll spend some time figuring out how to use it in a way that builds neighborhood bonds without turning into some kind of social club or low-value time suck that makes people disengage again. It’s an interesting thing to think about. But worth doing: apart from anything else, if there ever is an apocalypse, we will need each other. What heartens me above all else is that it seems I’m not the only one here who knows that.