My cookie-cutter neighborhood

I never saw myself living in a suburb. Maybe I thought they were all like Privet Drive in Harry Potter, or I bought into the stuff in movies and TV about all of them becoming soulless conformity machines bent on making us all seem like characters in an M. Night Shyamalan film.

But I love my house, and I love my neighbors.

Dan mows yards, but I won’t let him mow mine because I see it as doing my duty in the war against the crane flies.

Shirley has a little dog and loves coming to say hello to my kids.
Next Door Tim and I complain about the Vols.
Time Trial Tim runs races and wins his age group.
Mr. C across the street gave us a yellow tomato from his garden and asked if my wife wanted more.

It’s the place where I learned I can put down hardwood floor. Where I saw that floor get flooded by a pipe burst on Christmas Eve. I wasn’t home—my wife ran next door to get our neighbor Tim (not Time Trial Tim), who shut off the water for her.

It’s where I learned to patch drywall after the plumber had to cut her open to get at the burst pipe.

I guess what I’m saying is: I don’t rent this home. I own it. I love it. And that makes me part of the neighborhood—that, and being utterly convinced that everyone driving on my street needs to slow down.

Dan and I worry about one of our neighbors who is aging—who moved out, and we don’t know where he went, but he still feels like one of us. He’s the one who hit my mailbox one morning, which got me telling the first story I ever told on Substack.

I wonder if, in some ways, all of this is just a continuation of that one story: living this life, in this house, with these people, and all that happens here.

I can say that in two years, writing about it has made it all seem to matter. I think that’s why I’m writing about my neighbors: Shirley being bonus grandma to my kids matters. Time Trial Tim telling me about how he survived cancer matters. Or just wondering if Tennessee’s new quarterback is any good with my other neighbor Tim—that too.

It’s good.

Also, slow down.