We awoke this morning to a yard very expertly adorned in toilet paper, a gift from some friends (or perhaps enemies) of our daughter, apparently. As we commenced to pulling down their thoughtful decorations, Mitch, our neighbor to one side, Paul, the neighbor on the other side, as well as Jack, who lives across the street, joined in to help. Mitch is a lawyer, and I often hear him late at night playing piano. He’s quite good. He asked if I was still playing the guitar. I regretfully replied that I have not played it much recently. (Note to self: dust off guitar.) Paul, the English immigrant and defense contractor physicist, is a master home-brewer. He invited us to his next brew-fest a few weekends away. Jack is from New York and at one time was in the mortgage business. I’m pretty sure that’s changed now. I think he has a business taking kids’ school pictures. He loaned me a high-powered hose nozzle that reached the pieces of toilet paper we couldn’t get with telescoping pole saws. They soaked, broke and fell down. The pieces that remained in the trees are right now being blown down to the lawn, having dried in the Sunday sun in high branches.
Mitch and Paul had never met, even though they’ve lived one house away for many years. Jack is the gregarious type, so he knew everyone on the lawn coaxing down toilet paper, maybe not by name, but in that friendly Jack way of his he seemed familiar to all. Mitch summed it up nicely when he announced, “Nothing like a little toilet-papering to bring the neighborhood together.” I’ve often lamented the modern American tendency to keep to ourselves, avoiding contact even with those who live 15 feet to either side of us, and I am just as guilty of doing this as the next person. We’re busy, all of us, and we probably don’t have much in common anyway with the people who just happened to buy a home next door. I was fairly annoyed with the little rats that did the deed when I saw their handiwork this morning, but now I’m glad they did it.______________________
About the author: Dave Wilkie is an over-opinionated, under-educated, job-seeking advertising guy who blogs, tweets, dreams big and writes unmarketable books.