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1. Welcome a new neighbor with a plate of home-baked cookies and information on how they can get around in their new location; where the grocery store, nearby restaurants and banks are, etc.  It’s hard, especially if you are shy, to reach out to a stranger, but the rewards are great.

2. If you plan to throw a party featuring music and a crowd, be considerate and inform the nearby residents. That way, they can plan accordingly. They will appreciate the warning. Wouldn’t you? Note: Turn the music down after midnight.

3. See what you can do to assist your senior neighbors who may need a hand with getting their garbage out to the curb or groceries carried in from the car. Knowing that they can call on you during an emergency situation will be a great relief to them. Helping another feels good in and of itself.

4. Frequent the businesses in and around your neighborhood. It pays to make our money work for us in building these businesses and improving our neighborhoods.

5. When voting time comes around, study the issues, some of which will directly affect where you live. And vote.

Make time to take an active interest in your community. Think of it as your extended family. Loving your neighbors is like loving yourself. Try it. It works.

Patty Mooney has been writing since the age of 16. Her favorite topics include women’s issues, homelessness, homeless veterans, the arts, cinema, biographies, nature and video production. Her work has appeared in many publications around the world, including the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Reader, Create Magazine, Post Magazine, Women’s Sports & Fitness, Yoga Journal and others. You can read her blog, “A Diary Left Open” at http://www.sandiegovideoproduction.blogspot.com Her business site is http://www.crystalpyramid.com

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A couple of years ago we might have missed a moment like this. Like many others, we would probably have been watching TV, even though it was a gorgeous day outside.

WHERE HAVE THE “GOOD OLD DAYS” GONE?

It’s funny how the critics lament the passing of the “good old days”. They wonder what happened to communities, neighborhoods, civic virtue, or family values. Pundits rant at the right and the left, blaming each or the other.

Yet, the biggest change over the last two generations has been the advent of television. In two generations TV has grown to suck up over four hours of peoples’ time per day. No other social change comes close to this shift. It eats up about half of individuals’ free time.

What did people do with those four hours a day before the television came along? They spent time with the neighbors, with their families, and with their communities. The “good old days” were simply sucked into the television set. The fastest way to get them back is to get rid of your TV.

TV ISOLATES US

TV does not unite us. It does not bring us together in any meaningful way, although it is sometimes portrayed that way. The physical act of watching TV isolates us from one another. We don’t chat over dinner. We are plugged into the TV set. We don’t visit the neighbors. We watch “Friends”. We don’t play ball with our children. We watch the “Playoffs”.

We can not enjoy the warmth of the sun, if we are indoors watching TV. We cannot savor the beauty of nature if we are parked on a safa watching TV. “Nature” and “National Geographic” can not compare with the real thing. Most importantly, we can not enjoy one another’s company if our attention is locked on the TV screen. TV always demands our full attention.

COMMUNITES OF TV’s

There can be a room full of people, but if a TV is playing, everyone will be plugged into the set, mesmerized by the flickering lights. Watch it. Watch a party be ground to a halt by a TV.

That is what is happening on a larger scale with our communities. There are communities full of people, all ignoring each other as they are plugged into their TV. Drive around almost any community at night. Are people gathered in groups gossiping and having fun with one another? More likely, you will pass by a plethora of isolated houses with eerie lights flickering through the windows. From a distance those lights are downright creepy.

PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED AND RELATIONSHIPS BUILT

Get a taste of the “good old days” by turning off the TV. It is not that problems vanish when you turn OFF the TV. Problems do not vanish any more than they do when the TV is ON. My idyllic scene was disrupted shortly after I descibed it by the kids’ bickering. However, they resolved their differences and started playing in the sandbox.

That is the key. They were still interacting and could resolve their problems. Turning off the TV frees them to solve their problems and to grow in their relationships.

I have studied history extensively. I know full well that the past is full of pain and suffering as well as joy. People have also made great strides in many social issues over the past several decades. Yet, we lost something critical to our existance when we plugged in the TV and left it on for over four hours a day. We lost the time that used to go to building relationships, to loving, to living, and to connecting with each other.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Go back to the “good old days” by turning off your TV. Turn it off and play outdoors with your family. Go for a walk. Invite the neighbors over for a barbeque. Host a family game night. Read with your children. All these activities are relaxing and build essential relationships. They are also things people used to do in the “good old days”. Going back is as simple as pushing a button–the OFF button.

Katherine Westphal is the founder of a daring new website Trash Your TV! (http://www.trashyourtv.com) that makes it fun and easy for people to get control of their TV set. Are you addicted to TV? Take our TV Addiction Quiz (http://www.trashyourtv.com/survey) and find out!

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For the neighborhood kids growing up in the late 60’s, the fort was a representation of both our independence and ingenuity. We had a place to call home on those beautiful and endless summer evenings where it stayed light until well past 9 p.m., signaling we would not be called back home until darkness fell. Summer meant no school and an extra hour or two with our friends swapping stories. More important, we designed and built the BoGaKoTeZa sanctuary with our own hands. What a pleasurable reminder this was of our early team building efforts.

Growing up on The Hill, as it was commonly referred to, was an exercise in youthful utopia. In the 1950’s, many young married couples pushed slightly westward in the Chicago suburbs to secure an affordable home with a small piece of land. Most of the homes were similar tidy brick ranch structures with 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a family room, and a 1 car garage positioned on a quarter-acre (or less) of land. The very rare split-level would occasionally interrupt the sea of small ranch homes. Situated behind the houses on our block were sloping dense woods where we would walk, play, and socialize for hours. Kids ruled the neighborhood. It seems that nearly all the parents were in their middle to late 20s, of Bohemian or Polish ancestry, and had several kids in tow. The neighbors at the end of our block had 6 children, and our next door neighbors – the “Za” in the name of our fort — ultimately had 8 children. We were the exception — Irish Catholic with a relatively paltry 4 children.

This was a period when kids went outdoors and played. Perhaps in the spirit of pre-video game suburbia, kids were forced to congregate, play sports, communicate, and learn from each other. Our backyard, like that of all the neighbors, and in stark contradiction to Robert Frost’s admonition that “good fences make good neighbors”, was devoid of a fence and represented an open invitation of friendship. The backyard, meanwhile, was never an appropriate advertisement for Scot’s Turf Builder. Instead, our backyard was an active child’s paradise, simultaneously torn up to construct a mini golf course, beaten down in straight lines where we frequently ran the bases, or shredded completely to accommodate a lawn hockey game complete with homemade nets constructed of wood and chicken wire. Perhaps the greatest news was that our parents would either help in the construction of the various backyard games or, at the very least, enjoy having all the neighborhood kids visit and play. Except when we would inadvertently destroy the same sapling that my dad tried to plant, year after year.

The Hill was not only a haven for kids. For some relatively strange reason (strange by today’s standards anyway), the parents all got along seemingly well, too. They were part of bowling leagues, social clubs, invitees for each other’s parties, and communal workers when the water well needed to be repaired. This was a group of young people who rarely had two nickels to rub together, but who always helped each other and pulled together in time of need. These neighbors never moved. To this day, 50 plus years later, there remains a handful of the old guard still living on The Hill. Our 40-year home tenure was probably the norm.

The Hill was also a place of great experimentation. Most of the neighbor kids had their first communal taste of alcohol or nicotine, represented in the form of a beer or pack of cigarettes surreptitiously pilfered from someone’s house. And many more kids had that first kiss with the neighbor girl. With the assistance of my best neighborhood friend, a girl with whom I enjoyed that first kiss, I even unintentionally lit my first and only forest fire. It certainly didn’t help matters that as the fire started to spread, we tried to “smother” the conflagration with dried leaves to the horror of the volunteer fire department. That’s a story for another time.

From a child’s perspective, we were engaging in exciting yet debaucherous and sinful activities that might forever condemn us to hell. Forty years later, it is obvious that these were innocent and perhaps even necessary steps in our adolescent development.

Fort BoGaKoTeZa lasted a couple of summers and in the end was torn down or died of neglect as we grew older. I can’t remember which. But I do remember the pride in its construction and the joy we all felt hanging out there. These were simpler days, forever gone, only to be pulled from our memories. I miss The Hill.

http://www.dailyharangue.com

The Daily Harangue was started by a group of friends who had much to say, but agreed on little. These candid discussions on topics ranging from politics to music, nature to art, life, love, and the human condition have always been a free flow of ideas that serve to strengthen, rather than to destroy, the bonds of our friendship.

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We set up tables and chairs. Everyone contributes something whether it is food, plates, utensils, or drinks. It’s a combined effort and every bit of it is worthwhile. Neighbors of all variety show up; young parents, old parents, empty nesters, grandparents. Adults stand around and talk. Kids run around and play. It truly is one of the simplest forms of entertainment you can provide.

I can attest that the concept of block parties works. My family ventures outside more and now we take the time to walk across the street to say hello. I feel more comfortable going next door to borrow a cup of sugar. There are now additional adults that care, and watch my children while they play outside.

You get the wonderful gift of knowing different types of people who are interesting in different ways. It teaches your kids (and reminds yourself) to respect and appreciate the people that are, logistically, the closest to you. I have many neighbors who I consider friends. I encourage you to start your own neighborhood block parties. It will give you an accessible, extended family and provide wonderful memories for your children.

FamilyIgloo.com ( http://www.familyigloo.com ), an online social network for families in Orange County and Los Angeles, has a family events calendar. FamilyIgloo.com ( http://www.familyigloo.com ) provides parents of children and kids, PTA, and families with parenting articles and the resources to connect and get together in schools and neighborhoods. Our mission is: “Connecting Families and Building Communities”.

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They will make sure you to get the best services from the Funeral Agent that they have in order to make you get the other kind of perfect funeral that you have in order to make you get the other kind of perfect agent that you like. The funerals that they have will make you get the other kind of perfect services that you like in making your family get the best comfortable funerals that they want. If you like to have cremation, you can ask it to their staff in order to make you get comfort funeral that you like in making you get the best services that you like.

This site will gives you many kinds of products that you need, like the complete series of the Babies and Toddlers stuffs that you need for your baby in your house. When you have a newly born baby, you should make sure that they have the best high quality of products that they need. You can also find the Nursery Furniture if you need it in your house to make sure that your family will get first help when they got injury in any kinds of activities that they have in your house. There are many kinds of Activity Sets that this site provided to you with complete series.

In many countries, the abuse and addiction to drugs have been the two major problems in adolescents. It causes the teen drug treatment and teen marijuana rehab is high in demand. There are many institutions and organizations which offer their services to cope with such things, but only a few of those choices which can finally give the best help and assistance entirely. The Newport Academy is one of those possible choices. The great programs are offered to bring the hands for adolescent girls and boys to be free from such awful condition. If you live in California, the California teen drug rehab is the best options to look at.

In fact, you still want to find the other sources to complete this solution. You want to get the comprehensive teen addiction info and get more knowledge about it. It will be great idea to avoid the worse effects before everything is too late. To complete your references, you can look at the teen drug statistics and get the detail info about the drug users and the increasing number from time to time. If you really want to save your life and the life of many adolescents around you, start to take action now.

Some only allow you to search by counties. While others are more detailed, allowing you to search by street. Most can be found by clicking on a link for your State Police website.

Sex offenders are not the only criminals lurking in your neighborhood. Would you want your child playing near the home of a convicted drug felon?  Probably not. But where can you find information this information? The internet is littered with “free public records” sites. After clicking on these you will be given a form to fill out and mail in to obtain your information.

Today’s technology is so great that most of us are a little spoiled. We don’t want to wait. We want to download our information now! Your daughter is getting married and you want to know if her fiance’ has any type criminal history? Please wait 7-10 business days for a response. Really? There are several different programs available online that offer you instant answers. Most have a membership fee. Although I believe that most people will not mind spending a few dollars to ensure that they’re children and family members are safe in their community.

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Proactive vs Reactive Notification

Megan’s Law does not require that law enforcement authorities actively announce to the community in general that registered sex offenders have moved in. As a matter of fact – the main method of notification, is that they have a website that you can access that shows the name, address, and sometimes location on a map, the addresses of registered sex offenders. You have to ask for the information.

The Monterey County Sheriff Department (CA) has taken a more proactive stance. Proactive meaning that they will notify you as soon as a registered sex offender changes locations, or moves into the area. All you need to do is register at their department for the information. There are a handful of other police agencies across the US that provide a similar service.

For me, the proactive approach is much better. I know that I can check back from time to time and get my own updates, but what if I forget this month, or a couple of months? The problem is, I don’t live in Monterey County, or another county that has the service, so I need another way.

Your Own Proactive Choices

There is a service on the internet that provides you with updates whenever a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood. You register with the site and choose the red alert option and you can be informed via email whenever a registered sex offender moves in near you.

I have heard of that service before, but it isn’t free. It is called the National Alert Registry. It costs $4.95 a month. So my question is this: Is it worth less than $0.17 a day to you to protect your family? Whether or not you want to use the service is not the issue. The main thing is to stay informed and protect your family. If you choose to do the checking yourself, contact your local law enforcement agency to get their internet site and check it often.

Barry Dunn, EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Protecting Your Kids From Sex Offenders on Squidoo

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