Here there be dragons...

"I'm telling you stories. Trust me." - Winterson

We have now been officially welcomed

So it turns out the Welcome Wagon is an actual thing.  Who knew?   hahaha I definitely thought it was a phrase left-over from a fictional Leave-it-to-Beaver-ish time.  But no, I was out in the yard with the dogs and Chris came back with the oddest look on his face: "ummm the lady from the Welcome Wagon is here..."

Really?   Yup, really.  But unlike what I jokingly referred to as the welcome wagon (that'd be our awesome neighbour who brought us cookies ;) this one did not come with baked goods.  She came with a basket of flyers for local businesses, some discounts (free pizza!  Woohoo!), and some moderately useful items (bike trail map for one).

This particular ad amused me more than any;
Alas our lotto ticket failed :(
What also amused me was that it was clear that while she's lived here forever, she's not particularly happy with the changes in the neighbourhood after the last few years ('they turned all our shops into condos').   Nor did she seem particularly interested in being there; she was very pleasant, certainly knowledgeable and helpful, just didn't seem terribly enthused about her spiel -- maybe because she no longer believes in said neighbourhood? ;)   I don't know, just was somehow the opposite of what I would've envisioned as a welcome wagon had I thought such things actually existed.

So apparently it's a Canadian thing, and available across the country -- you can sign yourself up or, as we discovered, be randomly signed up ;)   Their website suggests they do other things too (new baby, retirement, etc) but I don't know anybody who's experienced it.  Wikipedia says it was a US thing first (by two years), but they don't do home visits anymore.  So there is your educational moment of the evening.  You're welcome.

1 comments:

It is indeed. My mom and I both got Welcome Wagon baskets when we moved into Georgetown :)

 

Post a Comment