Just Being Neighborly

When I was young, I would get home from school, chuck my bag in my room, open the fridge and look for food before deciding there was nothing I wanted, search mum's treat hiding place in the pantry, then go meet up with my neighborhood friends and play til dinner. We would play outside, go to each others houses, ride bikes, try and make wine from the 14 sour grapes we found growing, steal 'nunga' bands from the piping in the houses being built to wear as necklaces, walk to the shops to get gum, and suck up to the 6 year old boy a street away who's Dad worked for the Coke factory and had a massive stash of softdrink in his garage.
I can't possibly see how Mum could have known exactly where we were all the time, we just had to be home by 5:30pm.

I can't fathom the idea of letting my kids do this. Of having them playing out on the street and not actually knowing their exact location. The very idea scares me.

I guess things have changed with the times. I don't think there is the same closeness between neighbors that once existed. I remember when we moved into our current house about 3 and half years ago. Nearly a year later, there was a story on the news about an elderly lady who died and it took 3 WEEKS before she was found. Her neighbors in the apartment next to her alarmed police due to the horrible smell coming from her apartment!
This made me realize we hadn't even introduced ourselves to our 'new' neighbors. We gave the friendly nod and wave as we drove past each other in the communal driveway, but that was as far as it got. So being LDS and doing what we do, I baked some cupcakes and dropped them off to a few of the houses around ours and introduced 'The Bush Clan' to our neighbors.
Turns our we have lovely neighbors. We don't BBQ together or anything, but they are nice, friendly people. We have a good chat every few weeks and we have each others mobile numbers.

I like to think that if we all died, they would notice in under 3 weeks.