Maynard: My Place, Your Place

I like using the word "place" when I talk about our town. The word can be used to refer to ones' home, as in, "Come on over to my place after work today." But "place" means more than that. My favorite of all the different and subtle meanings is the one that kind of means "where you belong"—your place. I have a place in Maynard.

If I handed you a map of our town, and asked you to circle your place, your home, you might find your street and guess as to where your house or apartment might be. But your place is bigger than that.

With our town's land area being about five square miles (including a golf course and conservation land), our ten-thousand citizens are packed in pretty tight. You know what that means, don't you? Sure it means that, if you're a home owner, you might be sharing your driveway with a few different houses, or that your house takes up at least fifty percent of your lot space. But it also means that you are part of a close community where running into other Maynardians (Maynardites?) is just what happens. Around here, if we aren't friends, then we do our best to like each other and get along. I wish the whole country could live like this.

With such limited space, every person who lives in Maynard should consider the downtown as part of their property, like a giant family room. It's the place where we can go and hang out with friends without having to make sure that all the dishes in the sink have been washed and all the clothes are picked up off the floor. It's where we get to see people without having had to make an appointment. In fact, I get to see people in town that I never get to see anywhere else. They've never been to my house, and I've never been to theirs, and yet I feel close to them. Heck, some even send us greeting cards.

So utilize all your property. Put yourself into the Maynard family room. Get connected to people here, because the more people you know, the more you'll realize that you're home, that this is your place.

We all have a place in Maynard.