My neighbors and I read with interest and solidarity Petula Dvorak’s April 14 Metro column, “A congenial covid carry-over.”
My neighbors in East Falls Church were initially inspired by news reports from Italy during the early days of the pandemic featuring quarantined residents singing to one another on balconies. On March 18, 2020, as the pandemic took hold, we planned our initial, socially distanced get-together on our street at 6:30 p.m. The initial meeting went so well, we have made it a nightly tradition that continues to this day — 1,127 consecutive evenings of gathering at 6:30 p.m. Though not every neighbor has attended every night, we have managed a quorum of at least three families each evening since the beginning of the pandemic, regardless of the weather. We have dubbed our group “Six Feet at Six-Thirty.”
Just like the Foggy Bottom neighbors portrayed in Ms. Dvorak’s column, we have all grown together to become almost family and have celebrated countless personal milestones with one another. Through birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, births, deaths and other occasions, our racially, religiously and generationally mixed group has made lemonade with lemons and invited anyone of good cheer to stop for a friendly greeting, hearty laugh and a beverage. Over the past three years, I believe we have all learned that life shared with friends is immeasurably better than life alone — and that social distancing need not mean social isolation.
As the pandemic and public health emergency wind down, we encourage everyone to put a little energy into gathering with their neighbors. You might be surprised how receptive they are and how a little energy goes a long way to building community.
