One of our neighbors, just across the street and about three houses down, has a neat Christmas tradition. Well, they did it last year, and they're doing it again tonight, and I guess that makes it a tradition.
Wait. What are the rules here? For how many consecutive years must you do something before it officially becomes a tradition?
And then if you miss a year, does that cancel out the traditional aspect of the deed?
Whatever.
What they do is invite all the residents of the street for one or two blocks in either direction to come to their driveway at about dusk, share some hot cocoa or coffee or spiced cider and maybe some cookies or other sweets (and you can bring a plate of them if you like, but it's not required). And you just introduce yourselves and "visit."
("Visit" is a Texas term -- or at least a Southern term -- for sharing general conversation with someone. That's you all you non-southerners out there.)
We ambled over there last year and met people living in our block whom we'd never met before in all the 20 years we've lived here. Then (last year) it was cold, and the couple who live there built a fire in a metal outdoor fireplace right on their driveway and we huddled around it to keep warm. Tonight it's about 75 degrees, so the fire won't be necessary.
It's kind of a nice tradition. We plan to walk over there in a few minutes and see who shows up this year. There might be someone new. But that's won't really matter, because we'll have to introduce ourselves to just about everybody again anyway. We never see the people during the rest of the year unless they happen to be out mowing the lawn or something.
Time to go. I'll put this post on hold until we get back and tell you how it was.
........................................
We're back! It was nice again, just like last year. Only tonight was a lot warmer, with no fire. Just good friendly conversation with a little neighborhood gossip thrown in.
You know... "visitin'."
4 comments:
My neighborhood does something like that twice a year, John. In May, we have a pig picking (which is catered) and we all gather in a communal area and talk the afternoon away.
Last Sat., we had a neighborhood party at one of the homes and did the same thing. It is really nice. Our women's group has a get-together once a month, and tonight was our annual pot-luck dinner and Christmas ornament exchange. It really is a good way to get to know the people around you. I hate to admit it, but there is a woman who has lived about 100 yards from me for over 3 years and I had never met her until Sat. night (she had not participated in the socials before).
we have a tradion like this as well, we all meet up down the local boozer on a friday and talk utter cobblers. Most of the time it results in "friendly insults", this tradition happens more or less every friday.
Xmas is the same except with mince pies.
A nice tradition John, it exists here in Oz but sadly not where I live currently.
Thanks for the "fridge tag" poem, it was very good.
Sounds like fun - it's nice to know the people living around you.
LOL @ RobotJam!
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