Day 16: My Neighborhood.

Yesterday, my friend Lexi and I were talking about our neighborhoods that we grew up in. I loved our neighborhood! 237th Place SW in good ol' Mountlake Terrace, WA rocked the house!

Currently, our  next door neighbors in our building don't talk to us.  Or me. Maybe it's just me! Yikes. They are a young married couple, probably our age. They keep to themselves. So do the youngsters in the downstairs. The only neighbor we talk to is the single dad and his crazy young boys. Why is it that we don't know our neighbors these days? Is it just us? Do people not like WAM!?! Honestly, I feel more comfortable if I do know my neighbors. I would rather drive to the store than ask them for an egg.

Times have changed. We are in a small town, but it's not necessarily Moscow I am talking about. Our society, our country, America's neighborhoods have changed.

On 237th Place SW, when a new neighbor family moved in, families would bake something to give to them and introduce themselves. The kids all became quick friends. When I was a kid, we were friends with all the other kids in the neighborhood. We all played together. I remember many evenings we'd play kickball, baseball or soccer in the middle of the street! Our parents would walk to the end of the driveway and call our names when it was time to come in for dinner and then we'd head out right after to keep playing! Our neighborhood had these awesome block parties. We'd have a mini parade complete with an Emcee! We'd have many games, including a water balloon toss  competition between the North and South sides of the street.  We had so many kids in the neighborhood, there was always someone to play with! Even our bus stop was a good time. We put our backpacks down in a line and then would play around until the bus came to pick us up. The parents all came out to have coffee and socialize with other parents. They did not stand at the bus stop because it was a bad area of town or they felt we would be unsafe. They enjoyed it just as much as we did!

My bestie, Rachie Rizz, grew up two streets over. She was jealous of our neighborhood. She wanted to be a part of it. Needless to say, our neighborhood was THAT awesome.

We all knew each other. We were all friends. We all loved our neighborhood.

Today, neighborhood, I am thankful for you.