Ice Cream with the Neighbors

Our neighborhood is in the process of setting up a neighborhood watch. I believe all the necessary steps have now been taken and we "officially" have the watch set up. To celebrate and kickoff this new little program, they invited everyone in the participating blocks to come out to one of the cul-de-sacs for ice cream last night. Tim and I headed over, primarily because Tim volunteered to be on the watch rotation but also because last night was a really good night to have ice cream.

So out into the evening soup we wandered. By the time we got there things had been going for about ten minutes and there was a relatively large crowd. And most of the ice cream had already melted. We went ahead and had a cone-full of soupy ice cream, and stood around chatting with people who live between two houses and, oh, two blocks from us. Most of whom we recognize but had no name for. I don't know if it's us or this area, but we just don't know our neighbors.

I suppose a large part of it is us. We have no kids - most people in our neighborhood have at least two, and the majority of those are in the preschool - middle school age ranges. And honestly that was one of the reasons we bought in this neighborhood seven years ago - it was a great place for families. And we hadn't yet realized just how impossible having a family was going to turn out to be. Sadly, it seems that for most of our neighbors, if you have no kids to talk about you're now out of anything you might possibly have in common and back on the list of people to whom you can wave as they drive by, but no further social interaction shall be allowed. Mostly that's fine - it's certainly not the first time we've found ourselves in that situation. I doubt sincerely it'll be the last.

Beyond that, Tim and I get home from work and rarely spend much time outside. Particularly in the summer. Or the very cold days of winter. Or while school is in session and we've got homework. Or, or, or...you get the idea. We're homebodies. Only slightly more social than Sandra Bullock in The Net. I suppose in all honesty I should take the majority of the blame for this - I have a Mr. Darcy-like inability to interact with people that I don't know. And yes, Lizzie is correct that that can be cured with practice...but it just takes so much energy...and recent experiences (that I haven't blogged about because some of the attackers involved used to read here and I just don't see the point in making it more of a big fuss than it already is/was) have only gone on to solidify my feeling that, by and large, people just aren't worth the trouble because the more time and energy you invest in them, the bigger the blood spill when they inevitably stab you in the back.

So it was mildly surprising that I actually enjoyed myself a little bit last night. There are a couple of other couples/familes with grown children who have lived in the neighborhood as long as we have. We reconnect periodically throughout the year - and this ended up being one of those times. Inevitably afterward, Tim and I decide that we need to try harder to build and maintain these burgeoning relationships. We'll see if that resolution does any better this time than in the past. It was easier when the truly extroverted families lived within 2 houses of us - they were always throwing "Come All Ye" parties for no reason at all - and some of the time we'd go to hang out and chat.

My main point in starting this little ramble was to say that the police brought a little mini-parade to the event and that parade even included McGruff (you know, "Take a bite out of crime") - who must have been absolutely roasting in his dog costume, complete with buckled trenchcoat. We all felt incredibly sorry for that officer - because there's such a thing as too much dedication to the cause. (Though the kids loved it, and perhaps that makes it all worthwhile. That said, the kids loved the motorbikes even more because they had their sirens going and were available for photo-op perching.)

When all was said and done, we spent about an hour just hanging out outside with the neighborhood rabble. Shook some hands, forgot some names, and hopefully made a few new connections between other, more familiar, names and faces. And maybe with enough exposure we'll actually end up being able to at least tell you the last names of the folks who live immediately next door. If not, well, we got some ice cream out of the deal.