When I was about 12 or 13, we moved. It wasn’t a big move, we stayed in the same neighborhood. Chattaroy, West Virginia was pretty much a real life Mayberry. We knew all of our neighbors; we could drive up the road and tell you who lived in every house.
When we moved, we didn’t get keys to our new house, because the people who lived there didn’t have keys to the house! That’s because nobody locked their doors. We never lost our car keys, because they were kept in the car where they belonged. Those were the days.
Now I keep my door locked when I’m home. We have an eight-camera security system. We have an 80 lb. Belgian Malinois dog. We keep our cars locked in our driveway, with the keys securely kept inside the house.
Because there was no social media when I was 10, if you wanted to get to know your neighbors you went over to their house, knocked on the door and said, “Hi my name is Tim, and I’m your next door neighbor.” This flies completely in the face of this new age idea that man is basically good. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that things go from order to chaos over time.
It is better to know your neighbor than to live in a neighborhood full of strangers.
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