fences make good neighbors

Our neighbor across the street may have passed away.

I think he had been sick, but to be honest I don't really know.

There had been signs of "something" going on

We live on a fairly busy road

Which we chose primarily for the privacy

And our huge backyard

I grew up in a cookie cutter development in suburbia
We always left our garage door unlocked

Because everyone knew everyone

We could sit on our deck and see the neighborhood
(and the neighborhood could see us)

But ...

I could ride my bike anywhere I wanted in my development,
I just had to step outside to find other kids to hang out with

And there was always something sort of comforting about entering a home that looked sort of like your own

I fell once while working and fractured my wrist. My parents weren't home at the time, so I went to my neighbor - who was a nurse. She took me for X-Rays.

You always knew what was going on in the neighborhood
the good and the bad
(because everyone knew everyone)

You definitely knew when someone passed away

And, that is difference

(Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
from Mending Wall by Robert Frost)