The Best Neighborhood In The World

And I was fortunate enough to grow up in it

There are some people who are constants in this life.

Maybe they’re your family, your closest friends, or your woman warrior circle that you keep and reach out to on a monthly basis. I’m fortunate and blessed to have some incredible people in each of those categories.

The icing on the cake for me though is that I was gifted with the most amazing neighborhood to grow up in.

We moved to the neighborhood when I was 4 years old. While my parents were viewing the house, they chatted with the next-door neighbors, the DaSilvas. Their son was my age, and their daughter was a year and a half younger than me. They brought over their cozy coops for us kids to play on the driveway with into the quiet neighborhood road, something I was forbidden to do at our first house since it was on a busy street.

That same summer after we had moved in, we got ready one morning for what my parents called a “block party”. My 4-year-old self assumed a block party was something where the adults would do their usual stand in a boring circle of chatter, while I and other kids played with cardboard brick blocks.

My surprise and excitement were all consuming when my family and I approached, as the new people on the block, a yard filled with welcoming people in lawn chairs scattered around the host’s front yard. Children my age played in the Tuggy tugboat pool while some dads stood lined up at the backyard grills cooking hot dogs, and burgers.

The aromas of dressed pasta salad, fruits, and kababs danced amongst us from the driveway’s buffet table feast. Among the 4th of July tablecloth-covered buffet table was a carved, hollowed-out watermelon bowl to hold a fruit salad, something that I distinctly recall as mind-blowing at that age.

There were so many kids my age there, and they all lived in the same neighborhood as us! The amount of fun, exhilaration, and joy from that first block party became the norm for the rest of my childhood.

On Halloween, my sister and I got to go trick-or-treating with the DaSilvas. That first year, my family met at their house to take pictures in front of their old blue sofa in their pre-renovated family room. As we approached the last house that night, we all screamed when our neighbor dressed as a scarecrow jumped out from behind a bush and scared us.

For New Year’s Eve, my family would host or go next door. We’d all gather around a jigsaw puzzle on the living room coffee table while we waited for Chinese food to arrive. Later in the evening, we’d slurp eggdrop soup and crunch into tasty egg rolls while the ball dropped. Us kids would celebrate by staying up past midnight together with dancing and playing in the family room.

During the winter, our dads walked with us bundled up kids to the golf course nestled behind our neighborhood to go sledding down the giant hills. Other times when it had been cold for long enough, we’d all go ice skating at the small pond tucked away in the woods on the street corner. Afterward, we’d all come back to have hot chocolates with tiny marshmallows.

In the Spring, we’d all play and run around outside. We built forts in the woods at the top of the neighborhood hill at our entrance to the golf course. That first year, my next-door neighbor Thomas and I got married. There was a legitimate “ceremony” in their sideyard. I wore a lace white dress from my mom that I’d wear again later that year for Halloween as Glinda from The Wizard Of Oz.

As spring evolved back into summer, the tradition of the annual block party would come once again between summer evenings of playing ghosts in the graveyard and riding bikes until after dark. Days were spent swimming in my parents’ above-ground pool until our neighbors had an inground pool installed, which became the hot day visit location. On the 3rd of July, our families would gather near the center of town. Us kids would play with glow-in-the-dark nerf footballs with glow stick necklaces while we waited for the fireworks to start.

The neighborhood was our playground for us and our friends until we all went off to college. Until we all went our separate ways, it was many years filled with days and nights of adventures.

After school, all of us neighborhood kids would get together to play videogames or run around and play house or pretend in our neighbor’s back yard (also a preschool so it had the works in terms of backyard entertainment). During snow days, we’d meet at someone’s house who had an N64 to play Mario Kart, Supermario64, and Snowboard Kids.

Our first adolescent “milestone” symbolizing our maturity was when the group of us was given permission to walk to the Cumberland Farms outside of our neighborhood for sugary treats and sodas. The pizza shop behind the Cumberland Farms became a summer day lunch retreat. Eventually, we were able to venture to the center of town a mile away.

Riding bikes became exploring the golf course greens under the moonlight. Sledding with our parents became sledding as a group of friends and building “bumps” down the slope of the hill for liftoff. Sleepovers became staying up until 2 am watching Titanic together until we fell asleep.

Today, 30 years later, the DaSilva’s are like an extended family to us. After my dad passed away they welcomed my mom, sister, and me into their family traditions of Thanksgiving and Christmas since our real extended families are not close by. ❤

Once every couple of months, the neighborhood moms get together for penny poker night.

There is still an annual neighborhood get-together. There have been years of bike parades, tie-dye tee-shirt contests, and water balloon fights.

The block party now has since become a more sophisticated event for the adults to have some fun, but knowing it’s still an annual occurrence warms my heart. As the sun sets, we light the fire pit and chat while having our drink of choice. Classics and throwbacks play in the background from my “Block Party” named playlist.

My friends and I try to still get together on the 3rd of July. If it’s not that night, we at least get together for a late summer bbq.

Our hometown is notorious for “The Night Before Thanksgiving” feeling like a high school reunion. We’re admittedly beyond that age of going out and getting rowdy, but what we do now is gather at my Mom’s house. We fill the dining room with laughter, games, and conversation with a spread of appetizers.

We’ll be getting together next week once again for a fun night as neighbors and friends. Maybe we’ll find ourselves at 1 am sing-yelling Bohemian Rhapsody as we did a few years ago. Maybe we’ll play Team Game, a simple and fast card game Jess invented where we’re all on the same team. Maybe we’ll break into small groups and catch up before all gathering at my mom’s dining table.

I know for sure though, it will be a night that I won’t ever take for granted. We’re so fortunate to still have one another. Our group has experienced so much of what life throws us: growth, maturity, jobs, loss, love, marriage, kids, and pups. On Thanksgiving Day, I won’t be surprised if our family and The DaSilva’s meet up for desserts with our annual start-of-the-season viewing of Home Alone.

This is my life. Honestly, how lucky am I?

This year, I think I will propose a toast to all of our good health and fortune of being in each other’s lives! ❤