Mondays at Jenny's

It began with an after-dinner walk. Our friend Jenny was sitting on her front porch with another neighbor, and they invited us to join them. Jenny's house is an original 1880s home that faces the main (and only) road through the village. As we sat visiting, other neighbors drifted in. Soon all the seats were taken and people spilled onto the edge of the porch. Someone mentioned "Tuesdays with Morrie" and it sort of went from there. That was two years ago, and Mondays at Jenny's has become a village tradition.

The people who show up for Mondays at Jenny's are full-time residents, for the most part. The weekend people are usually gone. We're not discriminating; it's just that the pace of life picks up on weekends and there's usually something else going on. There are no invitations and all are welcome. And it has proven to be popular. In the photo above there are 13 people, not counting the photographer. That's more than one third of the total full-time-resident population. Most recently there were 11, four of whom don't appear in the photo above.

The point is, this is community. This is community that is built around location, shared interests and an intimacy that only a tiny village can impart. We never knew it in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, or even Oak Ridge. But it is part and parcel of what makes Rugby special. It is an 1880s village, and it retains an ambiance that has been lost elsewhere. It is a community.