My parents are visiting their new grandson this weekend (and, incidentally, their son and daughter-in-law). Last night, we had a long and earnest discussion about the concept of the “urban village”, and what qualities Wallingford had that made it qualify for the label. Yes, it has a tree-lined residential area surrounding a small merchant core of mostly-locally-owned shops selling the basic necessities: food, clothing, medicine, building supplies and ice cream, but it wasn’t until my mother approached me earlier this evening and asked me to post a note to the Wallyhood blog for her that I really appreciated how well Wallingford captures the spirit of an urban village.
You see, last night we stopped off at Bartell’s (founded in Seattle, 1890) to pick up a toothbrush, and at some point, my mother lost her scarf. Not an heirloom or huge sentimental value, but a nice, big warm scarf she’d had for some time and that she’d carried with her from Connecticut to visit her grandson (and, incidentally, her son and daughter-in-law).
But when we returned to Bartell’s several hours later, we found that someone had picked it up and hung it carefully on the arm of the bench just outside, to make sure it didn’t get dirty.
That, to me, is a village. Folks just looking out for each other in small ways.
So, to whomever found my mother’s scarf, picked it up and carefully set it where we would find it, thank you. And to my fellow villagers, thank you.
oh my gosh!
I think that was us!
but to be honest, I have been finding and picking up so many scarves and wayward gloves and setting them where I hope they might be found, I can’t be sure.
I can think of this happening outside trophy, Jhan Jay and Bartels all within the last couple weeks…
This is the kind of kindness in Seattle in general that I love to see others notice. Just this Sunday while walking Greenlake I saw that someone had placed child’s snow mitten (not cheap to replace) on a prominent fixture along the path where it might be easily found. My cell phone fell out of my pocket unnoticed and I got a call from a woman two neighborhoods away whose child had found it. My mother’s wallet, cash and credit cards intact, was returned to her by a guy who found it in the restaurant parking lot she had dined in the night before. And, don’t you just love it when more often than not people wave you to go ahead of them at blind intersections and wait for you to pass first on narrow streets, or wave “thank you” when you do the same? This is a part of our neighborhood culture that I really love.
-Kim