Chamber Currents
A NEIGHBORLY THANKSGIVING
To quote Vern Berry, author of Roots and Recipes: “Everything now is so fast-paced, and people don’t sit down together anymore for dinner. People need to remember what is important. It’s families and friends sharing what they have: their work, their food, their good times and bad, no matter how hard things get.”
You know, I get caught up in that fast-paced world. Get up, go to work, sit at a desk, answer the phone, pick up the kids, drive home, eat dinner, give the kids a bath, read a book, watch a little television, call it a night. Wake up and do it all over again. The faster and quicker our technology advances allow us to become, the more removed we become from the people around us. Yet, still we search for that acceptance from our community and from our neighbors who grow to become extensions of our very own families.
Nothing pleases me more than to take the kids outside to play while I work in a flowerbed. The sight and sound of a familiar car horn blowing as it passes by with a hand going up to wave makes me smile inside. An old friend passing by with a toot of encouragement means I am at home, in a safe place.
In our neighborhood, we share a few Labrador Retrievers, a cat we call Foot-Foot and the love of our two children. My husband and I are one of the only couples on our block who have small children, so when fires are built, four-wheeler rides are given and fireworks are put on display, it’s for the sake of Emma and Eli. Halloween doesn’t come when we don’t make the rounds. Christmas doesn’t come without a holiday gathering of the neighbors and special treats from the kids, and a Thanksgiving doesn’t come when I don’t thank God for my neighbors and the stories they share, the care they give and for what they stand for.
The value of a neighbor is an earned commodity, and I have witnessed the true value of such relationships from the doings of my older brother, Curtis. His barn is the local gathering place for many a neighbor. He cooks and he shares laughs and joys, heartaches and tragedies — all in the barn. All neighbors are welcome. Anyone can borrow, tell a story or get on a soapbox. No reservations required.
We held a neighborhood birthday party there earlier this month, to celebrate the birthdays of my husband, nephew, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and a few other attendees, and our entire neighborhood clan was there. And amidst the chatter, the eating, and the kids dancing, I looked up at the ceiling of that old barn and thought of the many things that have happened there…and all of the memories and stories that could be shared, if only its walls could speak. The people who have passed on would be so glad to know that we’re all there, all the neighbors are there, enjoying each other…sharing still the good, the bad, the ugly.
So, to my neighbors — Teddy and Jimmie, Bud and Ann, Brit and Brenda (Go USC!), Brad and LaMonica, Ken and Marissa, Sam and Lisa, Roger and Charlene, Kim and Sarah Jo, Stevie and Dawn, Nathan and Marinda, Curtis, Bobby and Nedra, Brady and Kimberly, Ken and Barbie, and of course, Granny Rosie, Linda and Gene, Happy Thanksgiving.
The Conway Area Chamber of Commerce wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy those neighbors, and whether it’s in a barn, shed, back porch, or kitchen, enjoy those stories and the people who tell them!
