Welcome to Pleasantville

You know those movies where the town is just so perfect that it seems too good to be true, and then the next door neighbor turns out to be an ax murderer?  That's kind of how Melrose feels, although hopefully without the ax murderer.

In our backyard is a large pond complete with turtles, ducks, blue herons and swans.  On the opposite side of the pond is a brand new dog park, grassy knolls, benches and trails.  A half a block down the street is a train station, pizza parlor, coffee shop, pet boutique and market.  A half a block in the other direction is Main Street, lined with shops, restaurants, large hanging baskets of flowers and American flags.  It is such a cute town, but it's really the residents of Melrose who make it so pleasant.

Roxy would really like to play with the swans in our backyard

dog park!!

Within the first week of living in Melrose I have met all of the other tenants that occupy the 6 units in our house.  There were 5 units in our building in Boston and I never really met, and rarely even saw, any neighbors in the year of living there.  And meeting our neighbors wasn't just, "hi, my name is..."  One of our neighbors invited my dad to go golf with him as soon as they met.  Others introduced their dogs and explained things about the house and neighborhood.

Lots of old Victorian homes- guess which one is ours!

Last weekend my mom brought my down comforter to the cleaners in town and they recommended she go some place else that would be cheaper and faster.  My dad was dropping off empty cardboard boxes at the recycling center, and someone gave him a brand new bird feeder to give to me.  People are SO nice here!

downtown Melrose

One afternoon this week after work I stopped in the store at the corner to buy a drink while I was taking Roxy for a walk. I only had a credit card on me and they had a $5 minimum for credit card transactions.  I apologized to the cashier for not having cash, and he said, "that's okay, you can just pay me back another day."  ...What!?  The next day I took Roxy on a longer walk.  A neighbor around the corner was pruning her garden and asked if she could pet Roxy.  She continued talking to me for about 30 minutes, welcoming me to the neighborhood, telling me about herself and asking me about myself and Roxy.  At the end of our talk she cut some flowers from her garden and gave them to me to brighten our new home.  Wow.  I think we're going to like it here. :)

I think they are also military friendly here, hard to say though...