Sunday, July 27, 2008

Being Neighborly

Our neighbor, Mike, is an avid and accomplished woodworker. He's also the grandfatherly type, and loves our kids. This past weekend, Cory and I hosted a yard sale in our front yard, and Mike put several items in to sell himself: a beautiful wall clock (that he made), an amazing rocking chair (that he made), some tools, and this plane (that he made) - pretty cool, isn't it? 

Since Mike didn't sell the plane in the sale, he decided to give it to Joey. I suppose I don't even need to tell you that Joey is thrilled. He told Mike that he was going to, "get on my plane and fly away!" 

Most of our neighbors are great folks. Mike is retired, and sits on his porch for much of the day, watching the comings and goings in our neighborhood. (That's a great thing to have - if you ever need to know what's going on on our street, just ask Mike.) He also knows the best places to get your car fixed or find a good deal on mechanical items. Vaughn & Cindy, our neighbors to the south, regularly offer us surplus from their garden, and invite our family to swim in their pool. This weekend, they gave me some jeans that they were going to take to Goodwill, so I could use them in my scrap quilt. A neighbor down the street has gifted me with bags of clothes her daughter has outgrown. Another neighbor gave us a case (that's 20 boxes) of granola bars that he got for free. We try to reciprocate, offering our garden extras (right now, cucumbers!), coupons, and grass-cutting when someone's out of town. 

Its a wonderful blessing, having a little community of people around that look out for each other, and offer help when they can. Maybe we're fortunate that most of our neighbors are a generation ahead of us, so they know how to be neighborly. I hope that it's not something that will be lost, as people of our generation sequester themselves in their homes with internet, iPod, and satellite TV. (Not to mention air conditioning - it's darn hot in my neighborhood today.) 

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