tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16201378.post5291553677443838634..comments2023-12-28T18:17:11.191-05:00Comments on Gruntled Center: Helpful Neighborhoods Tend to Stay Helpful Gruntledhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377809238377382438noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16201378.post-54583421726146898712017-06-20T09:33:57.958-04:002017-06-20T09:33:57.958-04:00It takes someone to seed the neighborhood with the...It takes someone to seed the neighborhood with the idea of being helpful. <br /><br />The most helpful "neighborhoods" in which I have lived were aboard Marine Corps and Navy Bases--communities well-acquainted with the stresses of moving. On moving day, neighborhood spouses and kids--people you had never met--would automatically be "johnny-on-the-spot" with coffee, offers of tools, offers to watch young children, and, in the dark ages of the 70s and 80s, offers of use of telephones. <br /><br />In my first moves in the civilian community, people hid in their homes, peering out from curtained windows at the strangers who were invading their neighborhood. When I automatically walked over to people moving in with offers of the same kind of help I was used to, I was usually met with suspicion--a "what's in it for you" vibe. However, when yet another family moved in, sometimes a person who had rejected offers of help would show up with me. Machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02067844122370343813noreply@blogger.com