The last couple of decades living here in a relatively small town (fewer than 2,000 souls populate the town) in America’s Third World County™ have been good. The first 40-*mumble* years of my life I spent mostly in metro areas ranging from a couple of hundred thousand folks to a million and more. The whole county contains around 25,000 folks, with about 60% spread out back in the hills-n-hollers-n-piney woods. . . although there are some areas with more developed farmland.
Although I’ve been leisurely nosing around for 40-80 acres to “get lost in,” just to get away from the crowding and noise of this major metropolis *snerk* where I now live, it is nice to have the neighbors I have now. Example:
Heading on down to the post office, just before the one-lane low-water crossing, a tree had downed a pretty good-sized limb. Traffic coming, I slid on by and once I rounded Joe _____’s place, I made a turn around, to come back and haul the thing off to the side of the road.
A couple of neighbors beat me to it. One was the young(ish) dad of the best kids in the neighborhood* (really!) and the other was his uncle from a bit further on down the street. They had it dragged on off to the side of the road by the time I had turned around and come back.
Good neighbors.
Now, I won’t say things like that NEVER happened in the cities I lived in, in years past, but around here, it’s just normal.
*Yeh, his 9-year-old son is the neighborhood organizer/leader. I had a basketball goal I had taken down (‘cos some drunk had driven off the road and down the hill into our yard, taking the pole out. *shrugs* Son & Heir had stopped using it a few years ago anyway). Asked him if he could use it. Said no, he already had one, but he’d ask around. Came back later with his younger brother, and they took it down to a family with kids who could use it. Another time, he was mowing some of his granddad’s property (a grassed drive beside our house leading to a large storage building just above the creek). He went ahead and mowed my front lawn, too. Uh-huh. One of those times when I had twisted my bad knee again and was using a cane. The kid notices things.
Good neighbors.
I’ll miss them when I move out to live on Goa Way, but not enough to keep me from moving, if I find the place. *heh*