Well I think tonight is "National Night Out".
http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/
I am the first to admit that I am not real chummy with my neighbors. It's not that I am reclusive or that my family are non-social, but it's more about the fact that we are just not often home. We have a yard guy who does the yard work for us. I work on my cars inside the garage. We don't spend a lot of time outdoors in front of the house just shooting the breeze with the neighbors. We are insanely busy most of the time so we just don't take the time to get to know the neighbors. But last night as I was pulling into the driveway the lady from across the street walked up and talked to me about the National Night Out and she said that in the spirit of helping the neighbors to get to know each other, she and her family were going to host a barbecue in the cul-de-sac for NNO, and she wanted to see if my family could attend. We are going to make every effort to be there for at least part of it even though we have a Tuesday commitment at the same time.
Now I guess maybe this depends on the kind of neighborhood you are in, and how much you likely fit in with your neighbors. I live in a suburban middle-class "master planned community" type neighborhood on a cul-de-sac street with about 12 houses on it. All of the houses on our block are within 20% of the median price, we are all working similar types of jobs, most are families with school-age children, so you know we all kind of have a lot in common anyway. But I know of people (my parents, for example) who actively fued with their neighbors so I can see how it goes both ways.
Frankly I think that whether you like them as pals or not, getting to know your neighbors and banding together to watch out for one another is a huge deterrent to crime and only can have a positive impact on the community. Once my wife called while I was out on a bike ride at night and she had to be rushed to the hospital. You know I was really glad to find my next door neighbors there when I got home, keeping my kids. Once I had to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night and when they saw the ambulance lights several neighbors got out of bed and came out to see if they could do anything to help. There are many times when it has been a neighbor who has come to my aid, or I have come to theirs, and often times you might find that you are truly stuck and need some help and you may kick yourself for not finding a way to make friends of your neighbors.
IMHO of course. Easy for me to say, I live in a nice neighborhood with very nice neighbors.
