New Neighbors In The Old Neighborhood

   When you move into a new neighborhood it takes awhile to settle in and get to know the people you now live among. 

   Before I moved into my home I scouted out the neighborhood thoroughly. Not that I was paranoid or anything, but I wanted to be sure I wasn't moving into a pit of despair, you know, like the neighborhood I grew up in.

   All the residents of the neighborhood seemed to be friendly, and everyone seemed to take quite a bit of pride in their homes - no overgrown jungles sprawling out onto the sidewalks, no rusty old cars in the front yards resting upon cinder blocks, no half-fallen fences or abandoned, boarded up houses. It all looked good on the outside and as luck would have it, everyone of my neighbors turned out to be good on the inside too.

   It's been 25 years since I moved into my house and what's happening now is a changing of the guard, so to speak.

   A lot of those neighbors I have known for years are retiring, and quite a few of those retirees are selling their homes and moving to where retirees move, mainly Florida and Arizona.

   Which means new neighbors are beginning to appear...and so far, all of the new residents seem to be just like the old neighbors - friendly, pet walking (and cleaning up after), lawn-caring-for types that are fitting in seamlessly. 

   We'll just have to see how they feel about the summer block bar-be-ques and parties - hope they're good to go for those.