Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Attention burglars: skip to the last paragraph

We have great neighbors.

We had good neighbors when we lived in Thorntown. We lived between a pair of Mikes – Zimmerman on the north and Hankins on the south. Mike Zimmerman was a commercial electrician and cheerfully sorted out a couple of wiring problems for free and his oldest son mowed our lawn for a very modest fee. Mike Hankins and his family were unstintingly friendly.

We didn’t know anyone in our new hometown or subdivision when we moved to Arkansas four years ago, but we have since become friends with most of the families in our subdivision. Shannon and Sophie Holland, our next-door neighbors, treat us like family and invite us to their family get-togethers. Maria and Sophie swap cooking supplies – last week the Sunday morning trade was Bisquick for a can of tomato soup – and Sophie knows I’ll whip up a cup of espresso whenever she wants one. Tony and Misty Micenhamer live the next house over and, being on the entrance road to the subdivision, Tony keeps a sharp eye on every car and truck that passes. He and Misty are dog lovers and thoughtfully brought dog treats over for Ruthie after her knee surgery a year ago. They also opened their garage and home to Zeb and the recently deceased Frank, free range dogs belonging to the cattle rancher who lives on the other side of the woods from us. We consider the rancher, David Head, and his wife to be friends as well.

I don’t know if it’s because people in the South are friendlier or if we just got incredibly lucky.

It’s also nice to know that when you go out of town, you have hypervigilant neighbors, some of whom have guns and maybe would enjoy shooting burglars.

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