"Won't You, Please? Won't You, Please? Please, Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

This has been a week of bonding for Salemtown neighbors. First, on Friday, several of us happened to serendipitously meet on the corner of 5th and Hume to chat with our councilman, Ludye Wallace, who was attending an Easter Egg hunt across the street at Morgan Park. He stopped over and he got an earful from us on why front yard fences matter and on how we really need the alley that runs between 5th and 6th paved. It was basically an impromptu association meeting.

This morning my wife and I took her parents to Monell's for breakfast, where we again ran into neighbors. After our typical banter over a not-so-typical corn pudding and fried chicken breakfast (for breakfast?!), we continued our bonding outside the restaurant. A "Nash Trash" tour bus drove by and the tour guide stuck her head out the window and yelled, "Hello, German persons!" (which was apropos if not correct, since we were in Germantown). We all agreed that the next time we met we should probably take the tour ourselves.

This afternoon while tending to the continuing saga that has become my nascent tool shed, I had some other neighbors come over and alert me to smoke rising out of my air conditioning unit, which we had turned on for the first time in months. This was a positive experience--that is, neighborliness from neighbors, not the smoke from our AC--because we've been concerned in the past that our relationship with these neighbors was a bit rocky. However, they were very hospitable and I was very amiable. I thanked them for the warning. They showed me the cracks in the wall behind their kitchen cabinetry and I let them borrow my wheelbarrow.

Good karma all around. Bonding is a beautiful thing for neighbors to do.