Barbara J. Hamby

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Neighbors

Having lived in this apartment for slightly over a year now, I’m painfully aware that, although I often say “Hi,” to them, I don’t know very many of my closest neighbors’ names. Some I have met, but can’t remember the names. I think I have the names down of the couple next door, and today I clarified the names of the mother and son who live in the apartment below us.

King City Apartments treated the tenants to a barbecue “End of Summer” lunch today and I made it a point to sit with the new downstairs neighbors and get slightly acquainted. She is in a wheelchair, but seems pretty active; her son looks after her and sees that she gets around some. These neighbors said they’d expected to meet us sooner since they believe they are noisy. We’ve never heard them and they claim they’ve never heard us either. We must have good insulation between the floors and the brick walls are, of course, good soundproofing.

‘ Even more painful is the realization that I don’t, at present, have close women friends, or even one close woman friend for that matter. Attrition has robbed me of those I hobnobbed with in Vancouver. One passed away, two moved hundreds of miles away and I moved far enough from Vancouver that I don’t get over there often. The women I see most often are other writers and we don’t socialize outside of our writing group. Writers tend to be loners to some extent.

When I have opportunities, I enjoy visiting with my sisters and a cousin (who all live a couple hundred miles or more away) and a cousin’s wife, who is only about 30 miles or so away. Another friend from Vancouver lives in Salem now and I see her occasionally for lunch as well as keep up an email correspondence. Email is only a substitute for gossip over coffee or lunch, but is certainly better than being totally isolated.

Tomorrow I’ll drive across the river where I hope to run into some of my Vancouver writer/poet friends at a Peace and Justice rally.

I am planning to join a camera club here at King City and maybe will meet other women there with a mutual interest or at least with the mutual handicap of lacking mechanical skills. If all else fails, I may give up and join the Red Hat Ladies. They always seem to be having fun.