Dear LPG,

Isn’t it funny how being at home seems to have made our neighbours into strangers over the past year? 

I am talking about the people who live opposite, next door or a couple of doors away either side of your home. There are the neighbours that have become real friends over the years, but I am talking about the ones that you have never actually visited or been invited to have a cup of tea with, even though you know that if you ever locked yourself out of your home you could knock on their front door and they would offer you a cuppa and let you wait with them until you could arrange for a family member to bring the spare key.

In the past there seemed to be a pattern to your leaving the houses where all our routines would somehow dictate that there would be opportunities to say a quick hello on the way out to the shops or we would share a word as we put the bins out, but over the past year or so, Covid-19 has managed to take that away from us to some extent.

I have lived at the same address for quite some time and I am talking about the neighbours that we used to just say a passing hello to; the ones that we compare front gardens with or share a comment about another neighbour who lives up the road.

To me it seems as if being locked down has taught us to be electronically closer to family and friends that now live further afield; the sons and daughters who have moved further away or even live abroad.  I am wondering if I am the only person who feels that the street where you live became emptier, lacking of activity and somehow a little less of a neighbourhood during the pandemic.

I am writing at the beginning of July when the promise of the end of all restrictions is just a week or two away and we are looking forward to being free again, and I truly hope that while we don’t forget the new habits of phoning and video-calling our geographically far-flung friends and family members, I really look forward to saying hello to people who live so close to us but who have seemed so far away recently.

NT, Lewisham.

LPG offers a little information associated with National Neighbour day…

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