Reality: Neighbors

Everyone has neighbors. Good, bad, weird, quiet, loud, neat or messy, we all have them. In the microcosm where I live (an RV Park), I have 5 neighbors. One lives in a house, one in a mobile home, and three live in RV's, fifth wheel or motorhome. The couple that lives in the house are a riot. They never walk their trash to the dumpster, which is 100 feet away, they always drive to the dumpster, always. She has some good recipes and shares them. They hold BBQ's/picnics in the summer and invite all of us. She is loud and boisterous, but she will drop everything to do you a favor. He is out of a job; the car dealer where he had worked for 10 years went out of business, so he collects unemployment; there are not any jobs in the area right now.
In a fifth wheel, there is the mom, the dad, and the 14-yr old home-schooled son, Kevin. Very nice, very quiet people. Kevin distributes the mail to us. Darla used to hate him, but now he is her favorite friend, bar none. The dad has had rotator cuff surgery and the doctor has not yet released him for work. The mom is a sort of camp host here.
In the mobile home, lives a father and son. The father was a marine in the Vietnam war. The son holds a job no more than 4 months and is trying to collect unemployment. The both have severely disgusting language, the father loudly, the son less loud. They have 2 cats and a dog. Every time they step foot outdoors, they each have a beer and a cigarette in their hand. They start with the beer early in the morning and stop at bedtime. they have very little money, but always enough for beer and cigarettes. They don't pick up their dog poos. They have a nice HDTV/satellite. They owe the owner of this RV park $1,500 in back rent. They would probably do any favor for anybody, but talking to them is excruciating, with that filthy language they spout. They are moving to Las Vegas this Friday. (Whew!)


In a small fifth wheel live two brothers. One cooks at a local restaurant, one broke his back working in the oil fields and is on disability. They are mountain men of sorts, very simple life, very quiet people. Neither one drives. They recently were given a nice canoe but have not taken it to the river yet, they are waiting until it warms up. They often have a granddaughter visit, her family got evicted from the park; they were my next-door neighbors.


In the motorhome lives a retired couple. He worked for the government in task force. They both make wonderful jewelry items that implement porcupine needles and copper beads. They are very nice, quiet people, and would do anything to help a neighbor. He likes good knives, she likes to gamble. They bring me a local publication every week and sometimes the local newspaper. They are both uneducated, self-admittedly, but mean well even if they don't pronounce words correctly.


My 6th neighbor lives on the other side of this RV park. He is 6 year old Curtis. He is the most self-assured person I've met in recent history. He comes around to sell me rocks and sticks, probably out of my own yard. Just before Christmas, he came around asking for a job around this place so he could have gift money. I had him take out the recycling trash and Windex my headlights and taillights. I paid him handsomely. He hand-wrote a Christmas card and today brought me a Valentine with a mini candybar inside. He is tough. He rides his bicycle, falls off sometimes, gets right back up and keeps riding. He is very well-spoken, above his years. He got a whistle the other day, and blew it in short bursts all day long. I could hear it from here, inside my RV. He blew it for at least 36 hours. Today, he doesn't have it. I think his parents hid it. This kid will go far. He will start a company and become rich and famous, mark my words. He has qualities that we adults need to learn. He is an inspiration, he does not give up, he does not cry, he knows exactly what he wants and does not expect a handout. He will never collect unemployment, the rich and famous rarely do!


The nice thing about having neighbors is that when it rains you never see them, but when the sun breaks, we all congregate in the road and catch up with all the goings on. We pretty much respect the others' privacy, except for sunny days. I hope your neighbors are characters, too, and you can learn to appreciate their personalities, differences, and ways of life. And, I hope you have many sunny days in your neighborhood. You might just make a new friend!