Occasionally, I station in one place. I know I am alone in my own little house as I call it. Actually, I love my place because it is really cool. People call it a dump shanty near the barn not so far from the houses in the village. Anyway, who cares for me? They do not even bother me to call my name, as if I have my own name. In fact, I am often beaten every time they find me near them. One morning a few weeks ago, I saw myself get hurt. I could not bear the pain, and that time I started to get mad at my neighborhood. However, my anger soon passed, and I was no longer angry at them. I could never mention to anyone because I had no time to find another like me.

Time passes, and now I am happy. Every day, I see them walk and I stay away from them. People with families have kids who play in the backyard. I see them feel happy. I too feel the same emotions. Every time I see them, I try to make myself become happier by crawling in the grass. I play with rotten boughs of trees and get twisted with those twigs around. When the sun goes up, I slowly move myself towards the grassy and cool ground. When I make myself a bit comfortable, I hear someone shout. It is a woman.

“Oh my God! Help! Help! Kill that beast!” As the woman speaks, I immediately crawl on the ground. I do not have to wait for someone to beat me just like what happened before. As rolled myself up towards the ground and hid myself from these people, I thought how strange these people in my neighborhood. They never recognize me just because I am a python. So what?

Have a list of criteria and see if the place meets them. You can make an investigation and find out everything from the best schools in the area, to the crime rates, best places for a walk, parks, distance from the town centre and such.

Your family’s needs are what matters the most. Crime rates, local school students’ results and other amenities you desire, such as shopping centres, pools, cinemas, beauty saloons all matter. The location of the hospital as well as that of the police department are pretty important too.

You should be aware that in every city there is a Chamber of Commerce. For people who are just moving into their city they offer booklets and maps of the city. These booklets can prove to be really valuable. Various useful telephone numbers can be found there. One of the first useful information you may need, for example, is the number of cleaning services, which you may be familiar with because of the end of tenancy cleaning company that you should have hired when you moved out.

The police department can provide you with information about the crime rates in a given area. in the area where you plan to live. Calling them is the way to find out more. You may receive a list with people and the crimes they have committed over, for example, the last year.

Visiting local schools is a thing to do. Ask about their students results on a state or a local level. Sometimes public schools rank higher than private ones. Thus, by researching you can save some money.

Finally, remember that no one leaves his apartment or a house dirty when moving out. End of tenancy cleaning should always be performed even if you are not a tenant.  

When looking to buy a house, the location of the house is very important.  Most people want to buy a home in a decent neighborhood, as they have the intention to remain at their home for many years to come.  If someone is planning to buy a home strictly for the resale value, then the location will prove to be even more important.  The resale factor of a home is very dependant on the location, simply because someone wouldn’t want to buy a home that wasn’t in a decent neighborhood.

When buying a home, the general rule of thumb is to purchase a home that will appeal to a large number of potential buyers.  To do this, you’ll need to look at the location of the home.  The community is very important, especially in terms of crime.  If you buy a home in a neighborhood that is well known for crime you’ll more than likely have difficulty when you try to sale.  Bad neighborhoods generally spark little to no interest.  These days, people want to buy homes in the best possible neighborhoods that they can afford.

When buying your home, you should always narrow the choices down a few of the best cities around you.  You’ll want to buy your home in a community that has a very stable economy and plenty of commercial and business districts.  This way, when you decide to sell your house, you can rest assured that your house is in a good selling area.  You should also look at the crime statistics for the area as well. If the crime rate is high, you should look into another area.

You should also look into the local school system as well.  Even though you may not have kids now, you should always think about the future.  A home that is within a short distance to shopping centers and quality schools are always easy to sale. If you buy a home that is in a bad neighborhood and has poor schools, you’ll quickly regret that decision.  If you can’t afford to purchase a home that is in a good location, you should work on your credit and save up some money until you are able to purchase a home that is in a desirable location.

Although the size of a home is important, the location is one of the most important aspects to buying a home.  The location is important for those living in the home as well as the resale value.  A home that is in a desirable location is always easy to sale, for the simple fact that the location speaks for itself.  If you’ve been thinking about buying a home for the resale value – you should always make sure that you pay close attention to the location.

Good relationships with your neighbors typically grow from lines of communication between both parties that are open and conducive to honesty. Of course, it is easiest to open up such lines of communication the moment you move into the neighborhood, or the moment someone new moves in, but it does not always happen this way. Even if you have a neighbor that has lived near you for years without a word spoken between the two of you, however, you can still open these lines of communication.

The best way for you to open honest lines of communication is to approach your neighbors from a standpoint of relationship. This means that you should aim to establish a friendly connection with your neighbor, instead of simply going to them the first time you need their help. The easiest way to do this is by inviting your neighbor over to your house for an afternoon swim, or for a barbeque, or for dinner. After spending a bit of time with them, you fill be able to cultivate a true relationship with them – doing so in such a way that the relationship is beneficial to both of you.

Recognizing that the relationship should be beneficial to them as well as to you is another big key. After all, you will have a hard time finding people willing to consistently help you if you never do your part to help them!

Establishing relationships with your neighbors can seem like more trouble than it is worth at times, but you will find in time that these relationships will certainly come in handy. And even those neighbors who seem “impossible” will begin to open up once they realize you are not just trying to “get something” from them!

Police will save you

A man informed his neighbor, while going out to attend a wedding in Delhi that he either will be late or would be staying back at his relatives. The neighbor then called up his two friends and the three decided to break in to his house, spread across the ground and first floor. The two of them entered through the back door and climbed in to the balcony to reach in to the first floor bedroom.

However, the owner of the house came back early and as soon as he stopped his car; he noticed that his bedroom lights were on. He called for help and soon more than two hundred people gathered there. The burglars tried to make a gateway by coming down a rain pipe at the rear of the house and found the mob, waiting there to kill them.

It was then they decided to call the police.  The cops arrived and arrested them, thus saving them from a certain death as the mob would have simply lynched them. So police saved thieves who were trapped and in trouble.

Image via Wikipedia

Throughout the summer and fall of 1989 Boston’s daily newspapers had been running stories of a so called crime explosion within the city. It was more a scheme of explosive headlines generated to sell more newspapers than an increase in crime but it left many Boston residents on edge over these alleged incidents. Charles Stuart used this to his advantage when plotting the murder of his wife.

In an emergency call for help Stuart called into his cell phone ‘My wife’s been shot! I’ve been shot!.’ Paramedics on finding the couple in the Mission Hills area of Boston found carol barely hanging onto life and Charles had a fairly serious but not life threatening wound to the stomach. He immediately identified the shooter as being an African-American male wearing a black running suit.

The story quickly became the biggest one in the city and even had some national coverage. The story was portrayed as what could happen to good people when traveling through bad neighbourhoods. Carol Stuart died, doctors were able to save her baby, but only temporarily, the child died a few days later. Charles Stuart underwent surgery for his intestinal wound.

The police in Boston began an intensive search of Mission Hill, African- Americans were subjected to strip searches on the streets on any pretense. Stuart meanwhile was showing unusual interest in a female co-worker and asked her to call him while he recovered in hospital. Detectives became fixated on finding the man Stuart had described to them, they did not look into the state of his marriage at the time of the shooting. There was in fact ample evidence that the marriage was not at that time a happy one.

Stuart was not happy with his wife’s pregnancy and had wanted her to have an abortion. He had also discussed the obsession he had for a co-worker and his desire to end his marriage by whatever means necessary with several of his friends and family members in the months before the murder.

In December 1989, Willie Bennett, an African-American ex-con was arrested for the murder after a nephew had jokingly bragged that he was responsible for the shooting. Stuart picked Bennett out of a line up that consisted entirely of police officers apart from Bennett. It was at this time that Matthew Stuart came forward and offered the police the information they needed.

Matthew Stuart thought that he was helping his brother in an insurance scam when he disposed of a bag containing a gun, wallets and jewelry. In return for his own immunity he agreed to testify against his own brother. Before he could be arrested Charles Stuart fled his home, the next morning he jumped to his death off the Tobin Bridge over the Mystic River. Willie Bennett was later released.

There are benefits and advantages to having some friends close at hand. Someone close may provide a need a lot faster than a friend some distance away. So how does one make friends with one’s own neighbors.

Be friendly! Whenever you see a neighbor, smile and say some cheerful greeting. If you have a few minutes, ask them how they are doing or mention something of local interest and before long you have a conversation going and you’ve made a friend.

Can you meet a need! Did you notice that the neighbour was having some difficulty with something or other? Lend a hand, you never know when you may need a hand and your neighbor will be able to help you.

Invite them over for some refreshment! Did you just make a fresh pot of coffee? Why not invite a neighbour in and share some refreshment and friendly conversation.

Spend some time in the neighborhood! Walk around the neighborhood and smile at and greet people that you see. After you have done that a couple of times, start a conversation. They will warm up to you and are happy to see you and talk to you when you walk by the next time.

If you are friendly, some of the neighbors will go from becoming strangers to being your friends. And who knows what little gem is living very close to you, right in your own neighborhood!

Other articles that may be of interest to you:

How to Make Friends

How to Make Real Friends and Keep Them for a Long Time

Why You Should Make Friends with Your Neighbors?

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From personal experience I can speak most directly of a heritage society that runs a museum, however I know that other groups have similar issues.

Port Moody Station Museum – Run by the Port Moody Heritage Society, British Columbia, Canada  — Photo by DWPenner

In part it has to do with making use of the money. There is a need for workers to build,  maintain and run an organization. But it also has to do with the actual size or apparent size of the organization. There are grants available to larger organizations out of reach to smaller ones.

It also has to do with the range of skills available to the organization. The fewer people the smaller the range. For instance there is less chance of finding a person with skills in carpentry in a group of twelve people than twenty. Having a larger group also ensures better continuity of skills. If you have a dozen people into gardening and one person leaves, you are more likely to still have gardening volunteers. Also they are more likely to be able to find more friends and neighbours who might be interested.

Participants at a recent BC Heritage Federation Convention touring North Vancouver Heritage Sites — A West Coast Native Feast Lodge and a historic Church — Photo by DWPenner

When I speak of participants really there are different levels that people might be familiar with as volunteering but also levels which people might not recognize as being important to participating in their local organizations and societies.

Anyone would recognize the need for volunteers. They do much of the work and for some organizations they do all of the work with no hired staff at all. Some societies and organizations have some staff — perhaps administration, perhaps hired specialists — and volunteers to make up the rest. Each organization has it’s own structure. Still most non-profit and not-for-profit societies rely strongly on volunteers to get the work and even organization done. Even the executive officers, directors, or trustees of the societies or organizations can be volunteers.

Heritage Society Members of the Port Moody Heritage Society at the 2007 AGM — Photo by DWPenner

So as participants you might have in addition to any paid staff and management, volunteer staff and management as well as  possibly a volunteer executive and directors.

There is an equally important level of participation however, that is the patron or guest. Just as important or more important perhaps is the person who comes through the door to make use of the facility or service the organization or society provides. Without those participants there is most often no purpose for the organization to exist.

Choir Sunday Bring and Share Lunch at St Francis Church, Solihull, England — Photo Courtesy of Hazel Smith

Without the general population coming through the doors, museums or galleries might whither and die. They might not be charging much or anything per visit, but they need the support of the community to thrive and often those that don’t charge per visit do ask for donation or seek funding from the community in other ways.

Philanthropic organizations face the same dilemmas of a lack of volunteers, though often they find no shortage of people in need. They do find a lack often of people to make donations… those are their participants. The people in need, their wards just as a museum’s artefacts might be theirs.

Organizations can not offer much in the area of financial gain to volunteers. After all, those resources should be going into the society or organization itself.

What can be offered to a volunteer or participant is the opportunity to be connected to their community and a feel like a vital part of that community. They can learn something and teach something at the same time. This can be shared with their children or their parents. Often there is work to be done, sometimes there are skills that can be learned.

I think the greatest pay-off is the creation of a vital community. While keeping your house or apartment neat does help your community and making sure your walks are clear and litter or snow free is working to keep your community vital at one level — volunteering takes it to a whole new level. Participating in an organization or society in your community takes you from the skin closer to the heart and brain of the community.

While it is true the skin is an important organ of the body of the community, volunteering takes you inside — perhaps not the brain, but closer to the brain-closer to the heart. In fact you might find yourself much closer to the heart and brains than you might expect, quicker than you expect if you have any interest in that sort of thing.

Behind the Scenes, waiting for the gardener — Compost bin and untended area behind the shed at the Port Moody Station Museum — Photo by DWPenner

Or, it might just give you another place to show off your gardening skills, or to talk to someone about your favourite artist, or to be proud that you swept a floor to help make a place presentable, or to have a say in how the money is spent in an organization, or to entertain a group of pre-schooler, teens, seniors, abandoned cats, salmon fry… The list can go on and on. Mostly it does mean work and mostly it just is something to do that is worthwhile to the community and indirectly to you. Possibly you can directly benefit by learning new skills or practising dusty ones. But it does help the organization and society.

Volunteering can also be something whole families can become involved with. Not all groups have flexible volunteer programs and places for children and teens as well as adults, but there are many that do. Some have more flexibility with hours than others do as well — you’ll have to look for a good fit. There are some places that will try to find a place to fit you in while others are not flexible.

The Port Moody Station Museum – Run by the Port Moody Heritage Society, Port Moody, BC, Canada.

Non-profit and not-for-profit organizations and societies need your help. They are starving for volunteers whether they are charities, foundations, museums, galleries or whatever. Regardless of what might be said about dollar amounts, there is a struggle for these groups to keep going and to provide the services that are expected and desired.

So take a step forward and volunteer, join, take part, participate! You’ll be glad you did! I know they will.

(Note: Some images were intentionally blurred to protect identitites of individuals in them.)

I remember the early 90s quite well. We moved into number 64 back in 1990′, at a northern Adelaide suburb solely of public housing. There i lived with my Dad, for the most part, until mid 2003. By 2003 the suburb was transforming dramatically. Public housing was being torn up, and private houses put in. They even began renaming half of my suburb of Salisbury North, to ‘Hawkesbury Park’. Dead bodies were discovered under a BBQ area just 2 minute walk from my house, the house was linked to a family of serial killers who also put dead bodies in vats of acid at an abandoned bank up in Snowtown, about 100kms up the road. I guess it was excusable that they wanted to revamp the suburb as it became notorious for crime, and the serial killings tainted an already bad name for Salisbury North. The semi detached housing consisted of one building which was divided in half. Each half was a three bedroom self contained house that had a 700-1000sqm block. If the people next door played their music a little louder or had their TV turned up, the sound would travel through the center dividing wall, and flood your place with noise! People hated their neighbours and privacy was almost unheard of, unless you put up big 3 meter high fences! People would weld bars on their windows and doors for protection, security screens were to expensive for most folk, and the wooden doors most houses had, offered no protection. Kids used to flood the streets riding their tricycles, as i did as a 5 year old going back to 91′. The streets used to be covered in rubber from almost constant burnouts, but it was all normality.

In the late 90s early 2000s soon after discovering a bunch of murdered people at the back of a housing trust home, the suburb began transforming. Where a housing trust building stood, consisting of two 3 bed homes within one roof, private housing firms built four independent villa style (narrow but far stretching homes) houses. To stress how close these mushroom like houses are to one another, one could reach over and grab their neighbours roofing gutter! They evicted all of the people that used to live in housing trust homes, and relocated them to some other part of the northern suburbs, as a different demographic of private home owners was encouraged. Gone were the days of living at a house that consisted of a 1000sqm block! Now people pay top dollar for a shitty house, with no back yard, and a non existent front yard. Blocks no bigger than 500sqm, some no bigger than 350sqm. Driving through my old neighbourhood, i found that 90% of the public housing has been replaced with these tightly packed homes. The trees have been cut down, the whole area look now like concrete and plastic, an artificial, lifeless skeleton of what once was. I was happy to see my old house still stand, but i was in near tears to see it so rundown. The old men that bought the house from us back near 7 years ago, still reside there. Before selling the place then, we had bought it from the housing trust for $60.000. We spent $45.000 in renovation. The house fetched a record selling price for a former government house when we sold it, an unprecedented, unheard of price of $125.000 back in mid 03′. Nowdays these homes sell for $200-250.000. I felt angry seeing the tons of junk piled up on the front yard, the garden destroyed, the lawn dead. The front veranda falling apart, and rubble piled up against the walls. How the government allows people to neglect their property like this, i don’t understand. Id flog them to a pulp, until every leaf, yet alone piece of junk gets cleaned up! I had personally dug that front yard, the first person to ever do so. The soil was so hard, never cultivated in the history of mankind. To see the house so neglected made me feel sick, as memories of better days almost overwhelmed me.

I know its the northern suburbs, and seeing junk, old car wrecks, tires, old broken furniture litter peoples front yards is somewhat a normality. It was never my normality in our house. I loved that housing trust home, every square inch of that yard.We spent everything we had in building that house up, and finally buying it off the government. At the back we had the best vegetable garden in the world, and the roses i planted at the front yard, had the most amazing flowers ive ever seen in my life. We had grape vines growing at the back, that gave us the best grapes ive ever eaten. In a time when we had nothing, we had that house and yard. I used to kick the football from one end of the yard to my mates on the street, the yard was just huge. Seeing the front of the house so neglected, fears me to even think what the house itself is like, yet alone the back yard. For all of that i hated about the suburb, the derelict people, crime, constant violence, i felt so at home there. I loved that suburb. What its become today is a suburb of private homes that are a time bomb waiting to explode. A huge reason why things were so sour back in the day between the neighbours, was the sheer lack of privacy as everyone encroaching on each others space. People nowdays have less room, and the privacy is non existent! The streets have been freshly coated with new bitumen. But there was something eerie about it all. Yes it was nice to see these fresh looking houses, and burnout free bitumen, but i haven’t seen anybody walking around, the whole suburb was just so quiet. It was like driving through a ghost town.

The suburb is so rearranged i can barely recognise the area. The Foodland, around the corner from my old place was re-clad with a new exterior, so was the video store, newsagent, post and fish n chip shop. But it just doesn’t look the same, nor carry the same feel it used to. I guess ive been absent so long that ive expected to see a place that at least resembled my memories, and that id somehow find comfort in that connection. But i just have nothing to work with. The place has changed so drastically that there is barely anything there to incite memory. Its like my memories still remain in a time long gone, in a world that’s been eroded by time and change. Most people could go and see where they’ve grown up, i cant. I have so many bad memories from the northern suburbs, and its why i done everything i could to escape that area. I still have some of my best memories, the special memories you never forget, that still remain there. When i see some of the remaining park there, i think of my first girlfriend, and the time i lost my virginity back in the summer of 2000. When i see the shopping centre there, memories of times it used to be the main hang out place for me and the boys . When i see the gravel bmx track, i get memories of times when i left bits of my body all over that ground. The alleyways and streets where many fist fights happened, all bring back painful memories. Wherever i look i find memories come back to me. But so much is physically gone. I guess i miss the 90s and early 2000s. Im a product of that time, of the neighbourhood that’s now gone. Ive never really broken my emotional bond with that part of the northern suburbs, how can i. Ive lived since in posh suburbs, and ive lived in a southern suburb where my neighbours had tennis courts, Ferrari’s, etc. But its never meant anything to me, my heart remained in the northern suburbs. I was still the same boy, only out of his suburb.

Visiting the old neighbourhood was an experience of mixed emotion. I wanted to see that area, only to find is changed and different. I know this town is being populated with excessive migrants, and that its excessive immigration that’s causing the shortage of land and housing. But all of that land development has destroyed a suburb that had a heart and soul in a time where most of out of towner’s wouldn’t dare drive through , yet alone visit. Sure its prettier nowdays, holds more property value, etc, but there are so many elements that are missing. Im sure im not the only person from that area that would feel the same either. Well i had to write this, to talk about the experience, and my observations of my little drive yesterday.

Its true that there’s no place like home, even if it was the most derelict ghetto in the city. In the harshest of conditions and environments, one could still find beauty…..

Image source: flickr.com

We knew the rules. Before being old enough to venture out alone into the neighbourhood, we were taught a few simple rules. They were much the same for everyone. We were to only go visiting or play at the houses of people known to our parents, and therefore never talk to strangers. We had to come home at tea-time. Failing that, we had always to be within hollering distance of our parents. When we heard our names flying across backyards to wherever we were, the time had come to drop everything and rush home.

Risk taking was part of growing up. There were trees to be climbed, garden sheds to be investigated and tricky situations to be got into and then out of again. There were secretive places to be explored, at the risk of getting lost or injured. Older children encouraged younger ones to try something new and gave them confidence and a helping hand. Taking risks and making mistakes were part of growing up. Children learnt how to make decisions and look after themselves through trial and error.

Image source: geograph.org.uk

Children were free to amuse themselves. Neighbours talked to each other and looked out for each other. Children turned up on the doorstep looking for playmates and found them. Small children visited elderly neighbours unannounced, for a chat and to see if they had anything new in the cookie tin. Meanwhile parents could enjoy time to themselves, uninterrupted by children.

Society is less safe today. People can live side by side and be unaware of, or disinterested in the existence of each other. The element of trust has gone and so children are no longer free to roam, explore and socialise without parental restrictions. Not knowing who your neighbours are now, means children remain within their own home boundaries, under the watchful eyes of their parents. Children learn early about the dangers of the world and how to avoid them.

Parents make the decisions. Somewhere during the passage through time, society has become more complicated and childhood freedom has been lost. With what is possibly the misguided notion of doing the best for their children, parents have minimized children’s opportunities to make mistakes and learn from them. Children are enrolled in classes and after school activities, are told where they are going and when. Many of today’s children live a very tight timetable, with no time to simply be children.

Children now are over protected and over provided for. Societal changes have dictated closer parental control. Replacing those opportunities to learn about life through living it, parents now over protect their children, carefully watching over them. The days of walking to so and from school, alone or with others,  are long gone for most children. Playgrounds have to pass strict safety controls before children are allowed to play in them. Expensive toys and technological equipment, often used in solitary situations, takes the place of playing with others in the neighbourhood.

Image source: commons.wikimedia.org

Today’s children, not knowing any different, are happy with the way things are. They are amused by the lack of sophistication back in their grandparents childhood. They believe life is far more exciting in this technological age.

But, do they still have the freedom to be children?

12 Year Old Boy Stabs a Man at Night

I Wore Your Sunhat – a Memory Poem