Thank Heaven for Bored Retirees

I know I have stated before that we are the youngest people on our street by like 30 years (except for the crazy red necks with the many kids and animals next door). I have never adequately enumerated the many benefits that come with this.

Everyone in our neighborhood bought and built their house in the seventies, raised their kids here and never left. Now they're all my parents' age and retired. Here are some of the benefits I've experienced over the past year...

1. Fresh, homemade baked goods for us when we moved in. We got warm bread, homemade toffee and several invitations to join people at their church that Sunday.

2. Homemade soup. My neighbor acorss the street likes to make soups and stews - from scratch. So on almost a bi-weekly basis, I receive a quart of his latest concoction - usually chicken or beef stew (we got turkey stew after Thanksgiving). It not only makes for an easy dinner with some corn bread muffins, but can be frozen too!

3. Food when you're sick. When I had surgery earlier this year, my neighbors across the street called and said they would be taking care of dinner for us and that they would just come in while we were at the hospital and put it in the fridge. We arrived home to beef stew (you probably could've guessed that one), ham biscuits, little egg custards (which are perfect for when you're trying to get over that "I had a tube down my throat earlier today" feeling), and various other delights. It was wonderful.

4. A watchful eye. These people give new meaning to the term "neighborhood watch". They know every time I leave the house and even come over if they see WH's car in the driveway during the day to make sure he's not sick. I nicely explained to my neighbor, who had driven his ride-on lawn mower up my driveway to inquire, that my husband was simply out of town on business and someone had come to the house to pick him up, thereby allowing him to leave his car at home.

5. They care about their lawns. Most of the people here care a great deal about how the front of their house looks. You gotta respect that.

6. Old people = early bedtimes. There aren't a lot of loud parties or late night antics going on around here. Heck, there aren't even a lot of lights on after 9:30. And I am totally ok with that.

7. They call to check on you. My one neighbor up the street called to "check on me" yesterday. She just wanted to chat and see what our plans were for Christmas. I love that.

8. They buy new toys that they want to use all over the neighborhood. We spent a good portion of the weekend raking our front lawn and I started on the back yesterday morning. Well my neighbor who just bought a leaf blower that looks like a jet engine saw me raking and came over to offer to use his leaf blower. In ten minutes, the entire back yard was pristine, and my neighbor felt more justified in spending $1000 on a leaf blower that you can't even pick up. You have to roll it on three little wheeels.

9. Everything you do is new and interesting to them. Our neighbors want to hear all about our latest trip to see relatives (they can't believe we drive through the night), our most recent visit to the doctor with OBB, or the new plan we hatched to renovate a room in our house.

10. They wave. Everybody waves to everybody in my neighborhood. Whether you're walking, driving, pushing a baby carriage or sitting out in your driveway in lawn chairs. There's a couple a few streets over who sit out in the driveway with their little pug dog every night and wave to all the cars that go by. So my WH and I started waving to them. They seemed like really outgoing folks. One night while we were walking around the neighborhood pushing OBB's carriage, we walked up to them to introduce ourselves since we'd never actually met them - just waved to them. They were very pleasant, but quite shy. Not big talkers. I guess they're just big wavers.

So there you have it. The many plusses of living around a bunch of retirees. My husband says we're never moving so I guess one day, way off in the future, I will be the nosy, bread baking lady, waving from my lawn chair in my driveway at all the cars as they go by.