tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post8729146370215513877..comments2024-03-27T11:42:47.601-04:00Comments on Another Monkey: A sense of community, history, place, and familyD.B. Echohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797128570217627410noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post-32941587755870241162010-04-13T13:09:12.354-04:002010-04-13T13:09:12.354-04:00It's hard to have a sense of family and commun...It's hard to have a sense of family and community when your family is all over the map. I grew up in Napa, California; none of my immediate relatives lived there. Some of them lived in Alameda and San Leandro (close enough to visit at holidays). Some lived as far away as Kansas, or Michigan. <br /><br />My husband, living with me now in Oakland, California, has a sister in Pennsylvania (Clarion, if you're interested) and a brother in Illinois, just outside Chicago. My only sister lives in Las Vegas. Where's the sense of community and family when your entire communication is by telephone and email? <br /><br />We don't even own the house I grew up in any more; we sold it after Dad died, because (a) Mom couldn't handle it alone (in fact couldn't handle living alone), and (b) we needed the money to support her in independent (later assisted) living. So I grew up in Napa but I know almost no one there now - my last close friend in Napa died a year ago at the age of 62. (Pulmonary embolism.)<br /><br />Nanticoke may be different from California - I'm not sure the coastal cities of California have much of a sense of place, community, or history. Oakland, of course, is so battered by poverty and crime that it barely has a sense of present, much less of history; it isn't the same town it was even 20 years ago.<br /><br />I'm not sure what point these observations have, but I felt I wanted to share them.hederahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post-13895617007940464262010-04-13T02:04:21.517-04:002010-04-13T02:04:21.517-04:00Hawai'i does have that sense of place and hist...Hawai'i does have that sense of place and history. For a while there people were worried, but the rate of its loss has slowed down in part because the flow of newcomers from the mainland has slowed as the economy tanked. But there's an effort to educate even the newcomers in what's called The Aloha Spirit, a "it's a small island, we all have to get along together" attitude.Linkmeisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00576347754628145004noreply@blogger.com