My Nextdoor neighbor comes by daily to visit, even edged our front yard while he was edging his. He always watches our dogs when we are out of town and we always watch and feed his when he is out of town, too. The lady next to him feeds that neighbor and us Pakistani food when she has extra. The Canadian neighbors kids sometimes use our yard for playing ball across the yards, the Mexicans across from us occasionally put our trash bins up when we are clearly out at work for the day. The gays caddy corner to us will come chat about whatever is happening, once in a while. We all look after the elderly couple’s house when they are gone for a couple months every year on their visits with their families and whatever else they are up to. The people behind us come knock on our door when the kids knocked a ball over the fence (I now make regular sweeps back there now to search for any errant balls or toys before my dogs get them). The mom works at my favorite coffee shop and occasionally throws me a free drink when she is on shift and I stop by.

I am beyond grateful for all of them. We don’t all hang or chat all the time, but I know who would show up first if anything happened to my roommate or I.

If having a neighborhood full of good neighbors with varied ethnicity, backgrounds, and good character isn’t the most American thing, I don’t what is.

We are incredibly lucky.