Roy’s Sunday Letter for March 29, 2026
Neighbors and Neighborhoods 2026
I am writing this week about the ways both neighbors and neighborhoods have changed, never to return to the days of images and memories of our experiences often reflected in a TV series or movie. Beth and I live on a traditional block of 16 homes. In my youth I grew-up on a similar block of individual homes. When someone new, which was not often, moved on the block my mother would take cookies and say hello and welcome. Before the digital age we neighbors used what we had and knew to make connections.
The initial days of apartment construction has grown quickly to what is now blocks of 300 and 400 units, whether open to all ages or constructed and marketed to 55+ seniors. What are today’s rituals and practices of welcoming a new move in, saying goodbye to someone leaving, or inclusion of “neighbors” in social events or meeting at mailboxes. With busy lives the tendency is to isolate and live our lives apart from those around us. This tendency matches the decline in churches, civic clubs and professional associations.
Sunday Letter Questions: In your youth, how did you and your family meet and know individuals and families living around you? In what ways have you continued or changed these practices in your adult life? What would you say is your preferred “neighbor style” today?
When we returned to Ft. Worth and moved to our west side neighborhood five years ago, we walked the block, said our hellos, and invited everyone to a weekend cookout. Attendance was good. I was hopeful about our sense of neighborhood…but! Several homes became rentals with frequent move ins and move outs. Homeowners were busy with children and work. Older owners tended to isolate, showing little interest in knowing and being neighbors.
So, after many a conversation, Beth and I will once again walk the block this Saturday. Along with our hello, we will offer a small loaf of Zucchini bread and our contact information. Just doing what we believe is true about community. What would be a small next step that you could take to act on you believe in? Let us know. We support you and your efforts.
Roy, believing in our neighbors and neighborhood.
Roy,
You’ve touched on a nerve for me. I had a block party several years ago that was well-attended, but I live on a long block and only got neighbors on my end. So I am thinking how to partner with a neighbor further down the street to host a potluck in their driveway? Like you, I want to know and connect with neighbors! Kudos to you and Beth for your initiative.
Sandra
Sandra…..We have lowered our expectations to an ever changing world. The “action” is on us nut the response.
WE will walk the block…..say hellos…..ofer a small loaf……and leave our contact information.
Our message will we are findable….you are not alone,,,,,Roy
My mother did the same thing when a new neighbor moved in, she made cookies and she and I would deliver them. When I lived on Glenwood I knew all my neighbors mainly because Jim would talk to a post. I have lived here for 11 years and I know the neighbors next to me and wave to the others on the street but neighborhoods have changed. There is a sense of isolation and a little fear of the unknown. I liked it better the old way.
And somehow to recognize the fear, the tendency to close the door, shutting out the sun, the light.
I encourage you to persist anyway. Your neighbor decision is theirs…..you are showing them yours.
You are indeed our neighbor
good morning Roy, great letter.. My parents didn’t own a home till I was 12. we moved the country as dad was an union asbestos worker. In this first home, mom and dad often worked two jobs and there was no time to socialize…. I wasn’t raised to know the neighbors.. this carried over to my first homes, working and kids took up most all the time and visiting on the street wasn’t common. This changed with my first home with Loo, in the hills outside of San Diego. She walked the dogs everyday and met so many people in the neighborhood. There were 4th of July and Halloween parties on the street and most everyone attended.. it was a new found joy! We brought this with us to Oregon.. i. know everyone on my block, both sides, a few just a friendly hello but many friendships have developed well beyond that.. People want to be friendly and want to visit , many are just shy, or simply don’t know how.. i find myself becoming much more bold to introduce myself and promote conversation and friendly karma…. much joy and very little disappointment..
Keep writing Roy! Happy Sunday to all..
“Yes, the times, they are a changing.” Wall Street seems to be changing the soul of neighborhoods. The house I grew up in is now lease property as well as other houses on the street I was raised on. We kids all went to public school together. Summer time was a time for back yard barbecues, cranking-out home made ice cream and eating fresh baked peach cobbler with homegrown peaches. And the neighborhood dogs were of course welcome. Our house was where the “house wives” of the neighborhood met for their morning coffee. The neighborhood was connected socially and with compassion. Bicycles, roller-skates, and scooters, red wagons, etc. were the norm. The ways I was raised has in many ways stayed with me. I like to bake and share treats with old and new neighborhoods. The neighborhood fire station closes off a neighborhood street now and then and there is a party and a sturring of neighborhood souls. The fire fighters have a special connection to the neighbors and we value their presence. I think we can stur the pot a bit and maybe we can rekindle the fire in the belly of our neighborhoods. AMEN
Good memories brought forward in ways you can do so.
An Amarillo reader made Comment on impact of rear entry garages.
Younger ones today want a safe place, getin/lock up, get online
We continue on together…..
Loo shows us all there is a way.
And, not a one time hello.
We are to b e who we be …. as will others.
Smiles, waves, dogs, even a shout out…..all good.
My parents lived in the house I grew up in for from 1950 to 2014! Lots of “new neighbors”. When I was growing up in the house it was the neighborhood kids who made the first contact with the new family on the block. Did the new family has kids? Did they play ball? Cowboys and Indians? It was through the kids that the welcome was rolled out.
Today, it is much different. Rear entry garages are not the answer for creating community.
Good insight on rear entry garages.
Tis not easy to stay with the hellos when there is little or response.
And from somewhere there is a wave or hello.
Just enough to keep us going to the next driveway,,,,,
What is fascinating and distressing to me is the growing desire to urbanize every road and field in Santa Fe. There is massive construction of housing units that look like boxes. One wonders how much payola was distributed to get those permits and where is the water coming from. Here in our neighborhood many of us are objecting to paying road fees in order to pave the dirt roads. Our roads are private here. We are in the midst of change and doing our best to secure this area as rural. I see some of my neighbors while walking the pups in the AM. And we on occasion make a plan for dinner at Harry’s. It takes consciousness and kindness.
Yes, the beehive housing so new, so different our rituals are lagging behind these new neighbor challenges.
The digital world more vital than driveway or walkway sharings.
Mr. Rogers 2026 badly needed.
My father was the pastor of several small churches during my school years so there was no difficulty making connections. Between church, school, and sports there was never any down time. Now things are different! Living in one of those 55+ apartments I am making a concerted effort to be available when they are in need of someone to fill up a bridge table, or 42, or canasta. I guess you would say when I am available, I’m on call. Wonderful people who desperately need help in filling in the time. As someone said not too long ago at a poker table, “the days are getting longer, and the years are getting shorter”. Thanks for your letter.
Yes, days and years have changed us.
We resist the push for us to separate, be divided.
And the do so again tomorrow……not easy,
Keep at it…..we/are not going away,
Thanks Roy, for the memory jogging. In many ways the world changes and the world stays constant. Thinking back on my childhood and the 50+ years with Nancy, we have always felt the sense of community. First, in growing up in Minneapolis, we knew the families up and down the block because this was post WWII when Women were staying home and the children spent a lot of time outside, summer or winter. Many women had gone to work in the defense plants but after the war, they were again relegated to the home. What a wonderful time for the kids to live in a household that could be supported by one paycheck and have your mother care for and fix lunches for you. It is my feeling that the women were many times somewhat bored, so would think up coffee breaks with the neighbors, birthday parties for the kids and get to know all of your child’s friends.
In moving to Fort Worth, we initially lived on the East Side and got to know neighbors well, in fact still corresponding with family members of those neighbors. Church again was important in our finding community, first St. Francis and then St. Stephen. Again, friendships developed because of our children and their friends, not necessarily families living in our block but close.
Move back to Minneapolis and now are empty nesters. Moved into a neighborhood that contained many original owners of their houses. These people too were interested in being neighborly and readily included Nancy and I in community activities. Most of them have either passed or moved to retirement centers at this time and now, I, left as a single, find myself the oldster of the neighborhood. New neighbors both next door and across the street who treat me as an elder, clean my drive for me, inquire about me when they don’t see me for a while and assist in yard work, occasionally dropping off a loaf of banana bread.
I guess what I am getting at is, it ain’t going to be like it was, but it’s okay, and community is there if we are open, and maybe will be as good.
Friend forever Jerry….
Yes, waves of change continue.
No one asked us to “walk the block.”
To model neighborhood we made that up.
Was a positive. New faces and names too.
I carry my mid-20’s friend with no driveway, finding space in a parking garage, then going unnoticed to her apt. and locking the door.
So, Lets continue to find our way, getting lost, stumbling over a new path.
Roy