We put a sign in our yard for the upcoming school board elections and not 12 hours later, we had a neighbor notice and mistakenly ask if we were selling our house. No, no way, if I have a say about it we are here for the long haul. You see, I was born in São Paulo, Brazil. A huge metropolis, when I was a toddler we lived on the 19th floor of a high rise. As a child I longed for that small town feel... and at the age of 10 I got a taste of it. When we moved to the US, we lived in Fair Haven, NJ for a few months, and man I knew I wanted that Smalltown USA feel, that was my dream, for my future family. We moved around quite a bit as my dad was settling down the new branch of his company, and as I adjusted to new school after new school, that dream for my future family was reinforced with each moving teuckZ. I wanted my kids to live in one place growing up, I wanted them to have a nostalgic feeling about a house, a town, strong memories of growing up in that one place. These seem like small or strange aspirations for a child, but I felt pretty strongly about it.
Fast forward 25 years and here we are, the epitome of Smalltown USA, snack dab in the middle of the heart of America. A lot has happened since that little girl rode her bike down the streets of Fair Haven, I’ve lived in lots of cities, a lot of houses, dorm rooms, apartments, but none have ever felt so right as this town, more specifically, this neighborhood. You see, we are not just a cluster of houses, there is a strong sense of family. Friends or family that visit immediatelt notice, we are all in this together, our kids are growing up together and man does it feel good.
I’ve realized I can work hard to make a lot of my dreams come true, but one cannot control others, not for a second. Yet somehow, we have stumbled upon this magical place where we still give May Day baskets, our kids give Boo baskets to neighbors, if we go out of town, our neighbors dog sit, we don’t really need to schedule play dates, we can just go outside on the driveway and after a few minutes, our driveway is full of kids playing, adults chatting. We feed the catfish, or ducks at the pond, we push kids on the swings or have impromptu picnics at the playground, this is stuff of storybooks.
As we approach another year of trick or treating, it is not forgotten how lucky we are to have this camaraderie within our little neighborhood. We will trick or treat as a huge group again, we will have people opening their doors with smiles on their faces, greeting our little ones by their names, commenting on their costumes. It is 2017, a lot of the world is over populated, in this 21st century, digital world... it is not the norm to live on a first name basis with this many of your neighbors. I realize this is a rare gem, I want to hold onto it forever.
When our sweet girl was born, I knew she would need a posse, something bigger than her (now) two brothers. And golly piffle I think this is why we were placed in this neighborhood family in the first place, she is protected, we are loved, let this be a thank you note to God, to the cosmos, to my peeps.
