One neighbor stopped to say hi, and a whole street changed forever
When Wade Fulgum crossed the street to greet a waving 4-year-old, he set off a chain of visits that turned an entire North Carolina neighborhood into a community.
It started with one neighbour deciding to cross the street. Wade Fulgum lives across from the Butzlaff family in Concord, North Carolina, and had noticed their four-year-old son, Roman, waving at everyone who passed the house. One day, he walked over and introduced himself.
The two started spending time together, and the ritual began to spread. Other neighbours started stopping to chat, then sticking around, then showing up for impromptu drag races down the street. What began as a small toddler’s habit had turned into a genuine neighbourhood.
Roman’s mother, Anna Butzlaff, said she wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. ‘I didn’t really know how to take it. I just saw that my son was happy,’ she told CBS News. She said the greeting habit began about a year ago, after Roman’s parents split up and his father moved to Florida, leaving the toddler isolated with his grandparents living out of state.
Instead of withdrawing, Roman began greeting every passer-by like an old friend, and neighbours started showing up to his football, basketball and baseball games, his swimming lessons and his pre-school open house. His birthday guest list ended up being entirely his senior-citizen neighbour friends.
‘Look at what this little kid has built,’ one neighbour said. Another added, ‘If the world was like this child, what an awesome, awesome place it would be.’
Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Pink Sherbet Photography
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