Do you Know Your Neighbors? You Will in Topanga! (LOCALISM FEATURED)

Have you ever lived on the same street long enough to watch it cycle through its own seasons?

To watch the new people move in and the Topanga long-timers meet and greet?

To see the young couple have babies, and the old couple pass on?

To watch the babies grow up to babysit the new young ones?

This month, I am celebrating my 20^th anniversary of living in my beautiful Topanga, with the best Topanga neighbors on the best Topanga street.

I got a chance to think about the changing nature of neighborhoods while relaxing with my most awesome neighbors at our first ever, streetwide yard sale. It was a mild and sunny spring Saturday, perfect for browsing through others' past treasures.

Parking my camp chair behind our table of treasures old stuff, I leaned back and lost myself in the reggae playing from my neighbors' driveway. Reggae is perfect for a yard sale. It makes people relax, unwind, and think "Hey, that's not such a bad price for a chipped ceramic puppy" and "I could play in the waves on that boogie board - the dog only chewed off one corner."

Of course, I had to stroll around to find out if my neighbors had any good stuff I just had to have. I learned that my next door neighbors used to weave and had an interesting wooden loom up for sale. My ballroom dance teacher neighbor at the top of the street had some great sparkly accessories. I could picture her wearing them as she waltzed around the room, the light playing between the mirror ball and her earrings. My other neighbor had some cute clothes, but she's way shorter than I am, darn it. No treasure haul for me! (Thank goodness!)

After the reggae morning, my garage was host to our neighbor's Topanga surf band for the afternoon. It's really easy to wind up the event and bag the leftovers for charity when you are dancing to "Wipeout." It was good to think that each neighbor was also donating up to 50% of the profits to two great Topanga causes. T-CEP - Topanga's nationally recognized emergency preparedness organization, and the new Topanga Native Garden to go in at our Topanga Community House.

Our neighbors are the best - we like each other! We still do those phone calls asking to borrow a cup of this or a tool to fix that. We get together at least a couple of times a year to barbeque and just chat. We are also great cooks and the tables at these events are loaded with all kinds of yummy things. We couldn't have this event without a post sale barbeque. Over dessert, I got to tell them the great news that the home on the corner of our street had closed escrow and we could look forward to some new faces on our street. Time to meet and greet!

Real Estate Bonus: I also got to tell them that the house closed at full list price. Full. A cheer went up for our property values! We might be a warm & fuzzy street, but hey, you've got to love that news for our Topanga real estate market!

Throughout this really relaxing and beautiful spring day, I was thinking about how fortunate my family is to be surrounded by caring neighbors. We look out for each other. We know that they are there for our family, and they know we would drop everything to help one of theirs. A few of the faces may change, but the nature of our neighborhood has remained good. Really good.

You know, I might be just a little bit partial. There are a lot of great neighbors all over Topanga Canyon, and a lot of good streets. I can help you find your Topanga Treasure Home.

Copyright 2008 Elaine Hanson