Preparing for our Neighborhood Cleanup
/Our neighborhood cleanup is this coming Saturday. One of the ways in which we partner with our neighborhood association is to hand out flyers to the 850 homes in this year's cleanup area. We have been going out each evening to deliver 50-100 flyers. It has been so interesting to explore parts of our neighborhood that we rarely visit and to meet folks who live at the other end of SoCe.
On Saturday evening, at the fourth house I visited, there were two men chatting in the front yard. I walked up and handed them the flyers and briefly explained the cleanup. The men are both working on renovating homes on that street, so they were grateful for a way to conveniently get rid of some debris. One neighbor walked back over to his house, while the other turned to me and started telling stories. An hour later (after Matt had delivered flyers on the other side of the street for 2 additional blocks, as well as flyering my side of the street) I was still standing in the front yard listening to wonderful stories of growing up on that street!
My favorite story from my new friend was about when the first Dairy Queen opened in SoCe. According to "Tom" the Dairy Queen was a big deal for the neighborhood! People would line up on summer evenings to get ice cream. Some evenings, a boxer dog with a paper sack in its mouth would trot up and join the line! It was a very polite dog, waiting patiently in line for his turn at the window. According to Tom, when the boxer arrived at the front of the line, he would put his front paws up on the counter and drop the paper sack. The DQ employees removed a hand-written note with an ice cream order along with exact change from the bag. They then placed the requested ice cream in the bag and set it on the counter. The dog picked up the sack and trotted off home with the ice cream. Tom said the ice cream-fetching boxer became quite a tourist attraction!
You never know whom you might meet or what you might learn when you take a stroll in your neighborhood