Community

A few days ago a friend and fellow blogger posed the following question on one of her posts:

Do most people who live on this side (of Durham) feel the community connection like I do...or does working at a place where I interact with most of the community make my frame of reference different?

Having grown-up in a small, Midwestern town I am very aware of that sense of community.  A place where you know your neighbors by name and if needed may borrow a cup of sugar from them.  A place where you see and hear children playing outside on these beautiful autumn days.  A place where people rush to hold the door open for you at the post office when your hands are full of packages.  A place where restaurant owners and shopkeepers recognize you.

I never realized how great all of those things were when I was a kid.  We tended to know lots of people and they knew us...it was a small town.   

Durham is by no means a small town but to answer the question above, I would have to say that there is definitely a sense of community here.  Almost everybody in my neighborhood will wave and smile as you drive by.  I don't know all of their names nor have I met many of them but that doesn't matter.  Earlier this week when I called the local pharmacy (not a big chain store but a true locally owned and operated place) the pharmacist knew me and genuinely asked how I was doing. 

I know these things are nothing major but there was a time where many of them didn't happen.  I also know that I am lucky to live in an area where there are a good number of locally owned and operated businesses which we frequently go to.  I am also very lucky to have a large group of friends and acquaintances that met at the local coffee shop which makes it much easier to bump into people when out and about.

I had the idea to blog about this earlier today.  I was busy doing some work when the doorbell rang.  It was my next door neighbor who is around 13 years old.  Her dad and brother just returned from Belgium and she came over to bring us some Belgian chocolates.  She also wanted to bring me a picture that she had painted for me...

Pretty awesome, eh?