What Do People Think Shiloh Is?

On Shabbat a neighbor's guest recognized me from over thirty years ago.  We had lived in the same neighborhood, though probably had never spoken to each other.  She was here apparently for the first time  for a family simchah joyous event.  She's religous and has lived in Israel for decades, so we're not talking about a first-time alienated from Jewish life tourist.

She asked me if I drive here at night.

"We don't have a car."
"Then how do you manage?  I saw that the supermarket is miles away."  Apparently she was referring the the Rami Levi she passed in Sha'ar Binyamin.
"We have two green grocers, an enormous supermarket-size grocery store, so well-run that both Eli and Ofra begged the owner to run theirs.  So, it's a chain of three stores.  We also have a clothing/toy store, two clinics and a local school to the Eighth Grade."
"Do you have any other synagogues?"
"Yes, in this building there's also a Yemenite minyan.  Down the street there's a "chassidishe" minyan, where people like to start later, and they always have a big kiddush.  There's the yeshiva, and a bit down the hill there's the Eidot Mizrach North African Sefardic synagogue.  And in the middle there's the famous Mishkan Tabernacle shul."

She was also surprised when I said that we're a half hour from Petach Tikva; actually, she was shocked.

"I guess I'll have to look at a map when I get home."

She had asked if young couples move to Shiloh, and I had replied that we're very conveniently located in the center of the country.  Considering that we're just under half an hour to the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Jerusalem and a half hour to Tzomet (Junction) Yarkon, Petach Tikva-Hod Hasharon, it's clear that Shiloh isn't just a distant suburb of Jerusalem.  Shiloh is a very convenient and pleasant place to live.