These are the People in my Neighborhood

Today was absolutely beautiful in so many ways. It was over 80 degrees, and I got out of work early. It was rare to get home early, but even rarer to come home to the sidewalk rush hour. Everyone was out, feeling good with the weather. Baby strollers, dogs, joggers, Spruce Street's sidewalks were pretty congested, but in the nicest, most smiley way. It seemed that only the happiest Philadelphians came out this afternoon.

After I parked in my ultra-pimp parking spot, I walked up the front stairs and ran into my neighbor, from across the "plaza". Background: I live in one of about five houses on a block of Spruce. The houses are separated by glorified, elevated alleys, basically. But each and every walkway is cute and decorated. We call ours Plaza de. That's all. Just "Plaza of". At night, the house lights and front porch lights make the Plazas our own semi-private patios.

Anyway, my neighbor asked me how I was doing, said he'd seen me limping and using a cane. We got into the required conversation about the fall down the stairs and various injuries. He told me about how he sprained his ankle snowboarding last year. I told him his story was much better than mine. He told me he wished my tailbone would heal quickly. I really love this neighbor. He's an older guy, always impeccably dressed, and so helpful when the electricity has gone out in our area in the past.

His partner is a very quiet guy, who loves to garden the front flowerbeds. As we were winding up our little chat, he came up the stairs too, brushing dirt off his knees. So the three of us started chatting, talking about what he was planning to plant in front of the house.

Then two of my friends from the bar stopped on the stairs to say hey, and then my neighbors got talking to them. And then the young law student from across the Plaza came home, followed by one of my roommates. They were both only too happy to stop and hang out on the stairs, too. Then after a few minutes, the guys who live in the front apartment of our house came walking up the block.

And then the funniest thing happened. People on the street started to stop by our group. Mostly they were just asking if everything was ok, since we were all just standing around with backpacks and whatnot. When they figured out we were just talking, catching up in the nice weather, they joined in. So our posse of eight, soon became ten, then twenty, and a handful of dogs. When I finally walked in our house with my roommate, the group was talking about grilling up some food some weekend.

Talk about your impromptu block party.

It was a beautiful thing to see, that the people in my neighborhood are so fun and sociable. And yeah, all that chatter about me not having many friends in Philly was slightly disproven today. I couldn't be happier to be wrong about that, though. Viva la Plaza!


Update: I love this site!