MEETing Neighbors

Uncategorized 2 Minutes

I went to the meeting for the upkeep of our road, and the next morning, while walking, I saw the other four who had attended. (Our road is not a state road; therefore, we have to repair it ourselves.) First, though, a man stopped his car, introduced himself. and asked how the meeting went. He knew me, but I didn’t immediately recognize him. He pulled out money for the road dues, handed it to me, and asked if I would deliver it. His mision accomplished, he asked if John no longer walked with me. You should have seen the shock on his face when I told him John had died almost a year ago. Do you suppose he wondered if I would spend the money on myself?? I promised to take the money to Bob, the current treasurer. He told me to contact him if I needed anything and called my phone so I’d have his number.

I walked on to the creek and didn’t spot the dead fish Logan had seen there the night before when he went to the meeting with his dad. I was in front of the fire station when there was a loud noise as several bins fell off a trailer. The driver was putting on a shirt as he walked back to the jumbled pile. I crossed the road and began picking up a hundred scattered pens and some craft items. He lifted the heavy bins back onto the trailer, thanking me a couple of times. He was still shifting things as I crossed the highway. I think he was taking the junk to the garbage center and wanted to make sure nothing else fell off. It was a pleasure to help someone who didn’t expect it.

Closer to home, Beth was walking her two-month-old puppy down her steep driveway. Dixie let me pet her as we chatted about the meeting. The next person I met was Pat, walking little Mickey. Normally his wife is the one with the dog. I waved at Jeff in his truck, grateful he took his car the night before, because I was riding to the meeting with him. I spotted Shawn and Bob on their porch, soaking up the warming sun. The money delivered, I asked Bob to text the man that he had received the road dues. That should have set the man’s mind at ease that his money was in the right place.

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

43 thoughts on “MEETing Neighbors”

  1. Sounds like you had quite the eventful walk after the road meeting! It’s great to see trust in the community, and it’s always nice to help others unexpectedly. Your neighborhood seems really tight-knit with everyone chipping in and looking out for each other. Thanks for sharing! 😊

    Like

    Reply

  2. Anne, I just love it when you share ordinary things from your day that bring a smile to me as I think about you doing those things. I think it would be so lovely to live in your neighborhood where people know each other and help each other. It would be my guess that your other neighbor was just really shocked that he was just learning about John’s passing, If he knew who you were and who John was, I cannot imagine he thought otherwise of your seeing that the money went where he intended. Who but a kind and thoughtful person with integrity would cross a road to help a stranger pick up items scattered from his truck instead of just walking on by? But just in case, how also thoughtful to have Bob text him that you had delivered it and have him not worried about it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. We wish everyone loved their neighbors. What a great place the world would be!

      I was glad I didn’t have to hunt for Bob and could deliver the dues as soon as possible.

      Thanks for reading about our neighborhood and enjoying it with me.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. What a lovely blog. You did what is called, “A Mitzvah”. The word mitzvah means a good deed in Yiddish. It is the basis of how I was raised. How wonderful that you naturally did what was normal for most people from our generation. Something that seems rare today.
    Thank you for sharing this. I raised my children with those values and my son did the same with his children. It’s wonderful to know that many of us still live by those standards.
    I read this blog post just before getting ready for bed and it put a smile on my face. Thank you Anne.
    I spent from 10:00 AM to 5PM today back in chemo because my cancer has returned and I am exhausted. You see there is a shortage of chemotherapy drugs right now in America because they outsource most of the cancer drugs from other countries.(because it’s cheaper). So I have been rather stressed about my treatment being interrupted because as challenging as chemo is, it works. And I have been concerned that if I can’t get the medication then my prognosis won’t be good. But, your lovely blog had me smiling. I shed a few tears, and my faith in the goodness of people was restored. Thank you Anne for sharing this lovely adventure you had today. Bless you for your kindness and lovely soul. 💕

    Like

    Reply

  5. Ah, i’d forgotten the joys of living on a unadopted road with all the expense of upkeep thsat most proplr take for granted.It does bring people closer together and makes a community of neighbours who look out for each other. I aagree with you that the world would be better with all communities beeing inclusive and caring. Humongous Cwtches Anne, from Wales

    Like

    Reply

  6. I love friendly neighbourhoods like this and am happy that we are in one similar here in Spain. There is nothing like nice neighbours. Every time I walk the dogs, I bump into someone and have a chat.

    Like

    Reply

      1. It’s a very international community. My neighbours are Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Irish, English, Belgium and Polish, so the common language is English. The Spanish folks who live here prefer to practice their English with us so we don’t get to use Spanish much. Even those who work in restaurants and shops tend to speak English. So my Spanish isn’t very good but I can make myself understood if I need to and if all else fails, we can use Google Translate on the phone. Even my doctor is German and fluent in English. But no one speaks Canadian!!!

        Like

        Reply

  7. As an adult I’ve never lived anywhere with friendly neighbors like you have. As a child everyone knew everyone, though. I’m glad you enjoy talking with your neighbors and know them by name.

    Like

    Reply

  9. We have the same situation, a private road maintained by the neighbors. It is sad that we don’t keep up with them as we should. I imagine your neighbor was shocked at himself for not knowing John had passed, not that he doubted your integrity. Nice that you could see so many neighbors on your walk. We used to have neighborhood barbecues in the summer, but we haven’t done that for years.

    Like

    Reply

      1. See…I didn’t know that private roads aren’t paid for by funds. I mean, it totally makes sense, but this is something I never thought about at

        Like

        Reply

        1. I hadn’t thought about private roads until we moved here. There are lots of them in the mountains. Generally a developer builds the original road, and after that is up to the owners to maintain it. I’m out from town, so my water comes from a well on the property. Electricity is provided by a large cooperative. There is no garbage pickup. You take your trash to the garbage center or hire a private person to pick it up and take it for you. David and I do a trash run once a week.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

    2. I am sure the shocked look on his face was from the news that your beloved John had passed away a year ago. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. I do enjoy hearing about your family and neighbors.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. Reading about your collective road upkeep I was reminded of my childhood street. My friend’s father was tired of people speeding by his house. He went out and dug potholes in the street. And no one complained!

    Like

    Reply

  14. I don’t recall you mentioning the roads being a joint expense shared by neighbors, even having a treasurer, in your blog since I’ve followed you. That is interesting. And as usual, seeing how nice your neighbors are is always the cherry on the sundae. Well of course I envy you Anne.

    Like

    Reply

      1. Interesting. We have horrible potholes here in Michigan and my City, although my street is not bad as they ripped up the street to put in new sewers in 1990, but some parts of the City are horrible. So I go out of my way to only go down the fire lane streets as they are pothole free and in Winter, (when I take the car out of a little run), they are the streets that are plowed first.

        Like

        Reply

          1. Our streets are pretty bad right now – they cold patch the potholes and it doesn’t last. I’m lucky for Winter because Pagel, which is the next street over, goes right down to Council Point Park, so they always plow and salt it – ours is not always plowed and salted. Ice is a different thing … it still ices up sometimes. So when I give the car a small run, I go down Moran which is even longer and no bumps at all. They try to keep it bump free for the patients.

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

Do you have a comment? I'd love to hear from you.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s