>When I was young, everyone in our town read the <Town Name> Times.
Speedway Town Press, delivered free to every house in town. Me and several friends started delivering it around 12 for 3 cents a paper and every kid would always read it because they wanted to see the honor roll announcements, school event photos etc.
Our principal retired when we were in 2nd or 3rd grade then in 6th grade we read about it in the town press, some of us wrote a letter to the editor that was then in the next addition and got us all letters from his widow.
We knew our neighbors by name (adults knew each other by first name, kids knew adults by Mr surname/Mrs surname). If you were going out of town for vacation you told the neighbor and they'd take your mail in, with they key they already had, and even feed/water your dog for you.
Neighbors would drop by to visit each other, often being invited in if it wasn't nice out.
I don't even know what my neighbors look like now. If you lined 5 people up I couldn't tell you if any of them were my neighbors or just random people.
My neighbor across the hall leaves their keys in their deadbolt at least once a week (Seriously, at least once a week. Twice just this week I've come home to see their keys in the deadbolt. Flat out will not answer the door because "oh my god a stranger"). Car key, apartment key etc. They've been doing this since they moved in in July. I have no idea what they look like despite the fact that I've stood there knocking on their door more than a dozen different days for multiple minutes each time trying to tell them they've left their key in the deadbolt. The first time I actually walked around to their windows and knocked on the window in a room that was lit "hey you left your keys in the door", nothing. Knocked on the door some more, nothing.
I truly miss a time when we were more interested in the people around us than strangers online.
Speedway Town Press, delivered free to every house in town. Me and several friends started delivering it around 12 for 3 cents a paper and every kid would always read it because they wanted to see the honor roll announcements, school event photos etc.
Our principal retired when we were in 2nd or 3rd grade then in 6th grade we read about it in the town press, some of us wrote a letter to the editor that was then in the next addition and got us all letters from his widow.
We knew our neighbors by name (adults knew each other by first name, kids knew adults by Mr surname/Mrs surname). If you were going out of town for vacation you told the neighbor and they'd take your mail in, with they key they already had, and even feed/water your dog for you.
Neighbors would drop by to visit each other, often being invited in if it wasn't nice out.
I don't even know what my neighbors look like now. If you lined 5 people up I couldn't tell you if any of them were my neighbors or just random people.
My neighbor across the hall leaves their keys in their deadbolt at least once a week (Seriously, at least once a week. Twice just this week I've come home to see their keys in the deadbolt. Flat out will not answer the door because "oh my god a stranger"). Car key, apartment key etc. They've been doing this since they moved in in July. I have no idea what they look like despite the fact that I've stood there knocking on their door more than a dozen different days for multiple minutes each time trying to tell them they've left their key in the deadbolt. The first time I actually walked around to their windows and knocked on the window in a room that was lit "hey you left your keys in the door", nothing. Knocked on the door some more, nothing.
I truly miss a time when we were more interested in the people around us than strangers online.