When we bought our house almost ten years ago, we checked out the schools, the crime rate in the area and crawled under the house to make sure there were no water leaks. But what we didn’t realize when we signed our name on the mortgage papers was that one of our favorite things about the house would be people who live near us.

Since most of us moved in around the same time, I met most of my new neighbors as we shared moving stories and traded cardboard boxes. After a few years, the kids came – lot of them and pretty much all at the same time. The strollers that were common on our street for so long have now been replaced our kids riding two wheeled bikes.

As much as my kids treasure their neighborhood friends, I know that I will always hold a special place in my heart for these kids who have grown up with my own kids. I helped throw baby showers welcoming their arrivals, held them as newborns, watched them ride their tricycle down the street and then saw them get off the school bus.

It goes without saying that we borrow the proverbial cup of sugar and eggs, but our neighborhood takes the sense of community to another level.  I’ve leant out bottles of salsa, chainsaws, boxes of macaroni and Ziploc bags. I’ve borrowed ear drops, snowsuits, lawnmowers and cake pans.  When our well broke last year, a neighbor even lent us water for a week via a garden hose we hooked to their well and snaked across the street.

The camaraderie in our neighborhood goes well beyond lending and borrowing. There have been many occasions where a neighbor returned a dog that I didn’t even know was missing or someone offered to watch my kids so I could go to the doctor’s office alone.  When my son crashed his bike into the side of the garage, another neighbor ran across the yard and pulled the bike off him while I sprinted down the street to get to him.  And I am still grateful to the couple down the street who welcomed us into their warm house (powered by a generator) during the 2002 ice storm and fed us homemade chili.

I know that I will live in other neighborhoods and have many more neighbors in my lifetime. But I am positive that I will always smile when I think of standing in the driveway with my friends watching our kids play together in the front yard.

Jennifer appears Mondays on TriangleMom2Mom.