Those of us fortunate enough to live in Webster know the feeling of community we get from being part of a small town. We wave at our neighbors as we take our walks, hang over the back fence to talk about the news of the day, maybe even organize a block party. But the residents of one Webster neighborhood have taken the idea of neighborliness to a much greater level, with a nightly — and very long-running — happy hour.
The tradition began in March 2020, just as the pandemic was shutting the world down. We were all resigning ourselves to putting our lives, and relationships with our our friends and family members, on hold for the foreseeable future.
That idea didn’t sit well with Jack Turan. He’d heard about how, in small towns all across Italy, residents were opening their shutters, sitting in their windows with their glasses of wine, and singing. The story gave him an idea: how about meeting up with his neighbors, outdoors, to enjoy a beverage and socially-distanced conversation?
That was the evening of March 22, 2020, and the beginning of a nightly tradition in one north Webster neighborhood that has continued every day since.
They call it the neighborhood “Yack with Jack Happy Hour.” Sometimes only two neighbors show up, especially if the weather is iffy. Other evenings it might be as many as 10 or 12. But the nightly streak has been unbroken now for four straight years, and on Sunday afternoon, almost two dozen adults and children gathered at the end of Jack Turan’s driveway to celebrate.
Everyone brought a snack to share (there was an abundance of sweets) and someone popped a bottle of champagne for a toast. But that was pretty much all of the officially planned activities for the evening; the rest of the time was spent just like every other night, chatting and laughing with friends and neighbors.
Even after four years, and even though COVID is becoming just a bad memory, there’s absolutely no plans to call an end to the happy hours.
“It will go as long as people want it to go,” Jack said. “There’s times when we say, how long should this go on? Then we look at each other and say, why would we want to end this? … It would be tough if all of a sudden we said, this is our last night.”
And even after four years, “We still find fun things to talk about,” added Sue Coulon. “I have not been out a night when I haven’t chuckled and laughed.”
Wouldn’t it be great if all had neighbors that would do that for us every night of our lives?
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(posted 3/24/2024)
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