Won't you be my neighbor?

I've always had a thing about neighbors, in that you should have some good ones in your corner (of your street, building, etc.). When I was growing up, we lived on a fun cul-de-sac that threw block parties every summer until I turned 13. I found some of my neighbors from that street on Facebook in the last year or so. I even have lots of fun book discussions with one of them. :)

When I lived in the condo, it was mostly myself and a lot of old people. Most of them were cranky and complained about ridiculous things (when I should be able to use the washing machine, that I was walking too loud, etc.). I had one set of neighbors on my floor who were really nice. They even helped me out when I locked my keys in my car on a freezing cold February morning.

When my husband and I moved to a townhouse, we didn't really know our neighbors all that well for about a year or so. We had the Russian couple below us who would say hi and tell our friends "Police move car" when they were on their driveway instead of ours. (They meant to say "please", not "police.") After my first son was born, another neighbor came out of hiding with her baby and we became friends. She helped me get involved in a local mom's meetup group. We're still in touch even though we've both moved out of that townhouse complex. I even got to see her during one of my visits to Chicago.

When we lived in NJ, our first next door neighbor was the shul we were attending. It was convenient, but the house we were in wasn't worth the 2-second walk. It's now the kiddush hangout. Then we moved to a house about a 15 minute walk from shul. A little over half a year later, some friends of ours from shul moved next door. We hung out with them every so often when they lived in the opposite direction from us. After they moved next door, we became much closer with them and hung out all the time. Our kids became close too. It was a perfect next door neighbor arrangement. My wish for them is that whomever moves into that house next will appreciate having such awesome neighbors.

And here we are in our new home. We have some great families on our street. We've become friends with the other Jewish couples and their kids. Next door to us on one side is a Rabbi and his wife. They're nice, but I haven't seen them that much lately. I haven't been inside their house yet, but my husband said it's very nice. On the other side of our house, there was a house that had gang activity going on for a while and was a mess on the inside. Then a nice Jewish family bought it and now they are our new next door neighbors. We had them over for dinner last night and enjoyed talking to them. They have some kids close in age to our older son (one of them is a girl ;)). The husband came back over after the kids were in bed and we were all up playing Apples to Apples till after midnight. I got to walk with the wife and kids to shul this morning. I'm definitely going to enjoy this new next door neighbor arrangement. :)

There's still another house on our street for sale. The neighbors on both sides of it are really cool.... (Hint, hint...)