This Street Or That?

I knew when we started regularly moving from one suburb to another (or one state to another, or heck, maybe even one country to another) that there was chance that one area could be more sociable to us than another. Although, to be honest, I thought that the difference wouldn’t be all that obvious. After all, how sociable would a community be to a couple who were only staying in the area for a week or two - neighbours, yes, but the community? Really? Let’s face it, we’d probably be moving on by the time our presence was registered.

However, I have to say… I was wrong. 

Yes, I admit it… 

I was wrong! (although not too loudly within Steve’s hearing.) 

Different suburbs are different! After several months of moving, I can now say with confidence, there is a difference from one community to another… perhaps even, one street to another.

Steve and I are, by nature, friendly people - talk to us and we’ll happily talk back to you (unless we’re urgently required somewhere else, you look really weird, or we’re holding on to the lead of a dog exceptionally eager to get home). But, that doesn’t mean we’ll automatically go up to a group of strangers chatting together in a park and introduce ourselves just because we’re all in the same space.

But here is different. We’ve only been here a week and I’ve lost count of how many people we’ve chatted to in the park simply because we both (or all) have dogs. Then there are the people we regularly greet in the streets because they walk their dogs the same time as we walk ours.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s always us who says ‘hello’ first, we don’t always get a chance. The dogs nearly always beat us to it, happily starting a conversation. In fact, I think it’s highly likely that us being recognised in this community has nothing to do with who we are. It’s all to do with our current location and dogs being decidely friendly… we’ve even come across a neighbour carrying treats in her handbag especially for our current pets…