Interesting post, thanks a lot for spending the time to put it together. I like the direction you are taking your blog. I will be subscribing to your blog in order to keep up in the future. Looking forward to more posts soon.

I went to school with your Dad and I lived in North Cambridge. You just brought back quite a few memories for me by writing your blog about your Grandmother's house. Only, when I grew up in Cambridge and went to NCC, there was no subway in Davis Square or Porter Square. I lived in a 3 family house on Dudley St. which was owned by my aunt. She lived on the 3rd floor, another aunt and her 2 kids lived on the 2nd floor and we were on the first. I even remember the garbage men coming into the backyard and taking the garbage bucket out of the ground. We were not very well off but we didn't even realize it. We were content with what we had and we had great neighborhood friends. I thank you for bringing me back to my roots. auto owners insurance car insurance rates

Where I live, there is an annual block party where all families are invited and their is a party where all the adults in the block go to once house for an appetizer, another house for dinner, and another house for dessert. These two days in the whole year are the moments where we get to know each other the best. That's when I learn about some of their challenges. It usually has to do with squabbles between parents and children. The easiest way to fix that seems to me is just get out of the house. Maybe more block parties are needed.

Where I live, there is an annual block party where all families are invited and their is a party where all the adults in the block go to once house for an appetizer, another house for dinner, and another house for dessert. These two days in the whole year are the moments where we get to know each other the best. That's when I learn about some of their challenges. It usually has to do with squabbles between parents and children. The easiest way to fix that seems to me is just get out of the house. Maybe more block parties are needed.

Jennifer should be commended for the work she is doing because it is truly disturbing that there are parts of America that are heavily populated where people cannot go and get food.

I agree with Michael. I think one of the biggest challenges we face as neighbors - at least in the city - is feeling alright being neighborly. A couple weeks ago, I knocked on my neighbor's door, because she had left her keys in her door, and I wanted to let her know. I knocked three times before she cracked the door open, and as soon as I began to tell her what was going on, she calmed down and said thank you several times. You could tell she felt strange for being cautious (although I understood why she was), and she could probably tell that I felt a bit strange knocking on her door, unanticipated. I think that's a challenge a lot of us face - being kind, while not being naive.

One of the problems with modern suburban American life is the fact that we are often very removed from the needs of our neighbors. We get in our cars, we go into our houses and only sometimes do we really know what is going on with each other. I think of this each year around lawn mowing and snow blowing and all the expensive things many suburban home owners have. I use the lawn mower for about 1 hour each week in the summer. The same piece of equipment could be shared by a whole street! But we don't. We have no comfortable mechanism to get into each others business, in a positive way. And so when we do help or share, it is often through our church or synagogue, where we have a framework to know each other better.