The center of things

I suppose most towns (small ones especially) have a place that is the center of things (in terms of activities, announcements, etc. - not necessarily geographically). On Ocracoke, that place is the Post Office. I have commented here before about how the bulletin board at the Post Office is the place to find out everything: what's for sale; upcoming events; who is having a baby, getting married, or celebrating something else; sad news like death and funeral announcements; minutes of community organization and committee meetings; etc, etc, etc. There's also often a good bit of social commentary on the bulletin board, as some people will take a pen and add their thoughts regarding the items posted there (directly on the item itself). Sometimes these comments are funny, and other times they are rude or full of (generally negative) attitude, but they are always interesting.

What I learned today is that you can also learn a lot by listening and talking to the people who come in to the Post Office. I learned this by spending just under an hour in there, listening and chatting to almost everyone who came in the door (not everyone had something to say, of course). In case you think I've finally lost it and have decided to move into the Post Office, I was actually there that long because I was working on a mailing of 132 postcards for the Ocrafolk Festival, and I had to stick return address labels and stamps on all of them. Anyway, while standing there doing that, I learned the latest status of the work being done on Macky's house, the current update on health issues being faced by multiple islanders, how much pork is going to be cooked for this Sunday's United Methodist Women sponsored after church lunch (and who will be doing most of the cooking), and the fact that Mackenzie (one of the first graders) loves ranch dressing and will eat it on anything (a child after my own heart, that girl is).

I love this chatting with and getting to know my neighbors. I think of everyone on Ocracoke as my neighbors. Although obviously some of them live in much closer physical/geographic proximity to me than others, the whole village isn't that large, so I think of it as one large neighborhood. This sharing of daily struggles, triumphs, and even trivia is what makes neighbors into friends.

It was a beautiful, interesting day in my neighborhood. Hope your neighbors are your friends too, wherever you are...