Each is precious
When you live in a small town or rural community, you come to appreciate each of your neighbors–there are so few of us, everyone plays a part in or makes a contribution to the daily life of the neighborhood. The neighbor with the barking dogs (in my neighborhood, that would be me), or with the kid playing drums after midnight (that used to be me), or the messy yard, or fussiness about boundary lines…also is the neighbor who hosts the potluck, or has helpful ideas about dealing with tent caterpillars, or turns up with a hot meal when someone is sick, or plants a patch of irises and daffodils that become a spring landmark, or helps out when you need a hand haying.
Then, there are the neighbors who become a part of your family or tribe. Last weekend, with some sadness, I was one of about a dozen friends who helped pack the moving truck for Kathleen Fitzgerald and Bob Josephson, tribe members leaving DeKalb. Kathleen and Bob moved to DeKalb in the seventies, raised their children, and improved three different homes. They have been so much a part of the life of our community–through the new babies, illnesses, deaths, children growing up and going away, parties and celebrations, weddings and funerals, work days and holiday dinners.
The good news: they are NOT moving to Florida, or Arizona, or Costa Rica. They are moving to Potsdam! Still very much a part of our neck of the woods. Bob is the manager of the Potsdam Food Co-op; Kathleen, who was the long-time membership director here at NCPR, is a nurse with hospice, based just outside of Potsdam.
Good luck, Bob and Kathleen. You may live in Potsdam now, but you are still part of the DeKalb tribe.
Steve and Steve, the truck-packers, take a break.
Bob--the truck half-loaded at this point.
Jeff, Nan and Kathleen--lunch on the floor after all the furniture is loaded.
Next party...in Potsdam.
Are you moving this summer? From where to where? Why did you decide to move? Let us know, add a comment.
Tags: moving
