Greeting the Neighbors

I’ve been spending some time in my hometown of Sarasota, Florida, in the home our family moved into when I was 12. It’s nice to be in familiar surroundings, where everybody not only speaks my language but knows my parents, the schools I went to, even some of my childhood friends. The neighbors have been the same for decades. Each time I see them we exchange greetings as if no time has passed at all. Jim still goes for his daily walks and Norma’s still doing her extensive yardwork, even though she’s in her 80s now. Though I hightailed it out of here when I was 18 and returned infrequently after that, in so many ways this is still and will always be HOME.

Today I sat working on the back patio. A slight movement caught my eye and I glanced up to see a 3 foot black snake slithering toward me. That’s a neighbor I never knew! Dad, here’s a heads up: I think when I screamed he hid up in your BBQ grill (and I’m not lifting the lid to look).

These neighbors below are dear to my heart… even though they don’t greet me in the same ways their human counterparts do. The Gulf spill is ever-present in peoples’ minds here as we wait to see if this part of the coast, and these neighbors, will be spared…