I was just skipping through a weekly email from Time and spotted this photo.*

The caption reads: Happy New Year. Villagers party in a local pub during the Allendale Tar Barrel festival on New Year’s Eve in Allendale, England.

I think it would be cool to be a villager. I hadn’t realized the term was still used for people in the developed parts of the world.  I live in a condominium complex that we sometimes call The Village because its name is Casitas Village, but that doesn’t make it one. We don’t have any villages in California, as far as I know. We’ve got some very small towns. But I checked out Allendale on Google maps and Wikipedia, and it’s a village alright. About 2100 people, which makes it 7 times smaller than the town where I live.

Maybe to be a village you have to do some very whacky, insane stuff – like the Allendale Tar Barrel Festival.

Now those look like some by God villagers, right there. And I have to admit, I don’t think I could keep up that kind of pace, or make that intense a commitment to my community. Not even once a year. But I tell you what, in my little town we recently got a new hardware store, having been without one for too long. I’ve only been in there once, for a little electric plug (buck and a half, a good price) but I imagine they stock pitchforks.

We could use Google Maps to source the local monster lairs, mad scientists and tea partiers. Or if you have a smartphone, there’s probably an app for that. Then you grab a torch, I’ll get my pitchfork out of the garage, and we’ll roshambo.

*Click photos to enlarge.