See You Around The Neighborhood

Yeah, yeah, I’m always scouting around for some upbeat stories on the neighborhood and community side of things. I gotta say that one of my favorite Dukes Up ditties was the one about Dr. Ernie Mandel from Newton who built that big skating rink in his front yard right smack at the start of Covid. The doc and his neighbors built it and flooded it with the garden hose so folks in the neighborhood could get some fresh air and skate. Then the predictable bullwinkle happened. The goddamn mayor shut the rink down. Hey gotta tell ya, Donut’s Garvey, if I were mayor I’d have encouraged more people in town to build skating rinks in their front yards. It’s kinda like a front porch on ice. It gets cooped-up kids outside and away from screens. In fact, I’d have the town pick up the tab on the water bills. To top it off, I’d roll some food trucks around the neighborhoods serving up hot chocolate to everybody. A coupla fun ideas and some creative leadership is all it would take.

Good community stuff is all about Come Together, Stick Together. You got this bloke Rob Newton in Rockport who has a tiny movie theater called the Cape Ann Community Cinema. Parked above a record store, the theater is set up like a living room with a mix of comfortable chairs and couches. Rob shows a mix of classic films and new independent films. One theatre regular said, “This is the sticky stuff that makes a community great and groovy.” Rob also offers freshly made popcorn. Oh yeah! This is the stuff that’s good. Locals are figuring out how community is more and more important as the world seems meaner and we grow further apart and stress levels are on the rise everywhere. People need to be around people. We all know that hanging around with friends makes life more fun.

Keep your dukes up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dM03dG3zv4

If you know someone who’d like these ditties in their inbox every week, have ‘em shoot us an email at darbyo@darbyobrien.com and we’ll add ‘em to the list.