The tanking economy just broke up this neighborhood pack of pals. Last summer, we finally had a young family move into a house that had been vacant for well over a year. We were thrilled. The boy, Mather (far left) and the girl, Astrid (next to her brother) were Meagan and James' (far right) ages and quickly became friends and allowed Charlie (center)to tag along with them everywhere they went. What's more, they had a sweet 13 year-old sister who would babysit for us on even a moment's notice. They spent the whole summer riding up and down our street and in and out of each other's houses. You always hope your kids will find good friends and these were good friends.Once, shortly after the boys became fast pals, they were playing with a toy pirate ship and figurines down in the basement and I heard Mather announe, "Ok these are the pirates that will steal all the gold..." Then I could almost hear his moral reasoning churning in his mind and then he added, "...but they are only going to steal gold for the poor people." That's when I knew for sure I loved these kids being buds with our kids.
Our new neighbors had relocated here from New Hampshire and loved the sunny weather and great community and quickly got themselves connected to new friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
Then, about three weeks ago, while Mather helped us unload the car after a trip we had taken knowing that I'd let James run off and play as soon as this job was done (again, I love this kid!), Mather announced, "My dad got laid off." My heart sank and I froze in my tracks. I said, "Really, Mather?" He said, "Yeah...the economy is not so good." James, senisng the seriousness of this said, "What does 'laid off' mean?" I started to formulate my answer when Mather said, "It's not 'getting fired' but it's kind of the same because you don't get to have your job anymore."
About a week later, Mather announced they were moving back to New Hampshire. Mather's dad later explained that unlike the other higher level managers that were laid off from his lab, he was lucky in that he was able to arrange for a new career taking over his father's small business.
And last week, they packed up all their belongings from a home they had settled into so easily and quickly and headed back to New Hampshire.
The crazy thing is I've been trying to understand this tanking economy of ours... reading the papers, watching news conferences with President Obama, reading articles. I knew this tanking economy was wide spread and affecting everyone, us included. A few months ago, Jeff who follows our long term investments better than I do, came home and said, "Well, we lost half our retirement today."(Fortunately for us we're a ways off from retirement or sending our kids to college and hopefully have time to rebuild that nest egg). But, the biggest and most real blow of all was seeing that moving truck in front of our neighbor's house and watching my kids' pals all pile in the truck and wave a solemn good-bye.
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