According to a survey conducted by Twentysomething, Inc., “85 percent of 2011 college graduates moved back home, at least for a while.”

Many young adults have moved back home due to economic woes, unmanageable student loans and their inability to find work. I was grateful to live with my sister’s family a few years ago after a job loss; it’s uplifting to see families willing to help each other through tough times. While this is a refreshing observation, it’s very different from how my parents and our relatives lived in York County a half a century ago.

A few years ago, my dad took me for a walk down what he called “memory lane” in Biddeford ”“ a densely populated neighborhood of triple-deckers in the shadow of St. Andre’s Church, where scores of his family members once lived. I’d heard stories of my grandparents and their families during and immediately after World War II: Desserts were homemade, neighborhoods were safer, couples double-dated, grandparents spoke native languages, and most notably, families lived together in closer quarters.

Once children were grown, families often continued to live in the same home, a story above or below each other, or a street over. On our tour, I saw where my grandmother, Therese Dallaire-Petit, and my great-aunt, Yvette Dallaire-Babineau, lived together in 1945 while their husbands fought overseas. Both sisters had babies and shared domestic responsibilities while awaiting their husbands’ return.

After the war, my grandparents and my father, their first born of five children, moved in with my grandfather’s family in Biddeford, while my grandfather got squared away with work and transitioned back into civilian society. A block away, on Mitchell’s Lane off of Pike Street, my great-uncle Del lived with his parents and grandmother for years. Right above their second-floor, cold-water flat, lived their other son, Antonio, and his family. Not far off on Common Street in Saco, my mother’s family lived in a similar setting. My maternal grandparents, Grace and Ray Kerry, and their six children lived on one side of a small house, literally divided in two to accommodate my grandmother’s brother, Paul, and his seven children who lived on the other side.

What I love most about these stories is that many families could rely on each other to greet their kids after school, eat dinner at the same table, or just play a game of cribbage together. This way of life isn’t completely lost. My mother, sisters and I live within six miles of each other. My father lives in Washington, D.C., but for years came home nearly every weekend to stay connected with family, and will be returning to Maine full time. Recently, my mother lived with my grandmother to prevent her from going to a nursing home. My Aunt Debbi did the same, making room in her home where my paternal grandmother lived the last years of her life as her health faded. Many cousins and I left Maine for a while, but the appeal of tight-knit families caused us to return ”“ even if jobs and climates were easier elsewhere.

While I’m sure not all families enjoyed living so close ”“ and college grads today want independence and their parents want freedom ”“ for many, living in closer quarters might be welcomed. I heard a victim of Hurricane Sandy who lost his house and is living in a hotel with his family say, “We don’t live like this at home; we’re sitting around talking. We’re forced to live like a family.”

We’re living in a world where so many are disconnected from one another it might be a blessing to be forced to live in closer quarters again, at least temporarily. Growing up, having grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles living within 20 miles of each other was heartening. Recently, my young nephews came home from school to find their two aunts, their grandmother and their cousin visiting at their house; they were so happy to see us and tell us about their school day and their homework and peppered us with questions about our days. I can’t imagine that simple feeling of connectedness getting old.

Thomas Wolfe lamented that we can never really go home again, but considering home is wherever our loved ones are, home is almost mobile; we can get there anytime we want.

— Nicole Petit holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a masters in American and New England studies. Petit has spent the past 10 years working for nonprofit groups that deal primarily with disabilities and child welfare. She is originally from Portland, but has strong family ties to Biddeford/Saco.