Last night I went to our neighbor Jeanine’s house for an in-home shopping show. The clothes were beautiful, finely cut and tailored, the fabrics a pleasure to touch. At the end you get to try them on. The point of the party is to buy stuff, of course, but I went for neighborliness. For connections.

We chose our neighborhood because of its friendliness, and in large part we have stayed here for the people. In the suburbs you don’t rely on folks the way you do in the country. When we lived in Arkansas we never went “down the mountain” without asking friends what they needed from the store. That happens here only when there’s a snow storm or other natural disaster.

Buying clothes from a shopping consultant isn’t exactly like building a barn or harvesting hay, but it’s what passes for pitching in around here. It doesn’t banish the anonymity of suburban living, but it tries.