Where everybody knows your name

For many years, I have been longing for a certain type of social dynamic. You see it in sitcoms…a group of friends who can drop-in and drop-out as they please into some sort of social setting. Maybe it’s someone’s apartment, maybe it’s a bar or a restaurant, maybe it’s the fence outside the yard. Whatever it is, it’s a low-stakes places where close friends can interact without it having to be pre-arranged or scheduled. Back in school, this was easy. In high school, obviously you’d see people in class, in the hall, at lunch, or after school. In college, I’d regularly eat with my friends at the dining hall without having to pre-arrange it or check anybody’s calendars. (Bonus points for walkability: nostalgia for US college life somehow ends up always coming back to the community being walkable and not requiring a car to socialize.) After graduation, it gets a lot harder. Everyone goes their separate ways, everyone has their own lives, their own schedules. Friendship takes hard work, and…