Neighbors
I guess we all have neighbors. Well some of you have lived way out in west Texas, and we might not think you had any neighbors, but you did. They may have lived 20 miles down the road, but they were neighbors. And they were good neighbors. If a problem arose, you could bet your saddle they would be there to help any way they could. And if you had a good thing happening they would be there to help you celebrate.
The first six years Alice and I were married we moved 12 times. That will create a whole lot of neighbors. You know I can’t remember any of them being difficult. We had fun neighbors as well as stoic ones. We had rich ones, but mostly neighbors just like us. Army privates don’t generate a whole lot of cash, but we all shared what we had. We have great memories of making ice cream together, or sharing a pot of brown beans and cornbread with each other. Many times in El Paso we got together and made a batch of hot tamales that was as much fun in the making as it was in the eating.
We finally bought a house in the city and our varied list of neighbors was more limited. We still had plenty of folks living real close as well as neighbors across the street and around the corner. I remember one neighbor who had a mischievous streak he enjoyed, and we tolerated. He loved finding my car parked on the street and he would wash and wax one fender and half of the hood. I guess he thought I would be a little miffed and wax the rest of the car. I fooled him; I thought that 1950 Chevrolet look kind of cute with one waxed fender and drove it that way.
Some of our neighbors enjoyed borrowing things, like lawn mowers and watering hoses. I felt ok about that for that gave me the license of returning the favor by borrowing his tools and garden wagon. Neither of us ever returned a borrowed tool, we just went into each other’s garage and got what we needed. Worked out fine.
We lived one place with a neighbor that gave me a little trouble. He worked in his yard all the time. Alice on occasions pointed out this fact. His yard looked great. That put the pressure on me to try to keep my yard a little neater than I really wanted. He was a fun guy and we had many good times together, and I suggested that he might slow down a little. Didn’t do any good. He just kept planting, pruning, and mowing. He even sometimes crossed the street and helped me mow my grass. But I got even with him. When he would spread commercial fertilizer on his lawn I would conjure up a rain. The clouds would boil up in the northwest, lightening flashed, and thunder rolled. Then came the soaking rain. Washed all his grass greening fertilizer right across the road into my lawn. Now I had a beautiful green lawn also.
We moved a few more times, but now we seem to be pretty settled. And I am happy to say we again have a great bunch of neighbors. God bless them all.