Community Can Happen Anywhere
Community occurs in the smallest of moments: A chuckle over the tabloids at the checkout stand. A tale shared with a store manager. A chance encounter of neighbors before the dairy case.
Each of these moments, seemingly insignificant, adds up over time. In currency more valuable than cash, an economy of human connection flourishes.
For that reason, neighbors and friends mourned the loss of Rockwood Market which recently closed its doors after 86 years. Generations counted on this small South Hill grocery for milk and eggs and meat. His customers’ habits and faces became so familiar to owner Tim McGee that he often knew what they were seeking the moment they walked in the door.
A way of life centered around that store near Manito Park, as it did around neighborhood markets throughout the Inland Northwest.
Back when most women were housewives, and couples often shared a single car, small markets kept families fueled with fresh produce and friendly smiles.
The reasons that once kept corner grocers alive have nearly disappeared. The culture - and the economy - has changed and not without true loss. Like the ‘90s teens in the film “Pleasantville,” we can turn back and see a calmer, more reassuring past.
But as we gaze forward, we can’t discount the human need for community.
Old shops have closed, but new ones have opened. Today it is the independent bakeries and restaurants, as well as chains such as Starbucks and Rosauers, that help create community.
Neighbors still run into each other in these places, sharing news of the kids, wry political observations, or maybe just a mutual unspoken wish that they’d each grabbed a lipstick or a comb first.
The Rockwood Bakery will open on East 18th in the place of the market, and in that news, there is hope. Bakeries are the perfect connectors for this new culture, one that is set in neither 1953 nor 1968.
Fewer women find time to mix up after-school cookies, birthday cakes or Sunday morning cinnamon rolls anymore, but a good bakery keeps family traditions alive.
New shops and restaurants, while never replacing the treasures that were lost, will continue to bind our neighborhoods. Never underestimate our need for community, nor the ingenuity we’ll employ to create it.