We have had great luck with neighbors.

Thinking back to our earliest days together, and up to the present time, we have always had good neighbors.

Just recently, and after our latest snowfall, is a good example of good neighbors.

I heard noise from outside and went to the door to look out, and there was Gasry Norris plowing out the end of my driveway. Gary is former owner of H&H Grocery and has a blade on the front of his pickup.

Not only was Gary cleaning up our driveway but proceeded to go down the street and do other driveways.

At the sametime there was next door neighbor Dorothy Stiegelmeyer with a broom sweeping off my car and the sidewalk. 

It would be different if this was just once, but it’s the way things are in our neighborhood.

We have had a history of good neighbors. While in Nampa, Idaho for college, we lived in a veteran housing project where there were 16 units. Every neighbor all four years was terrific and friendly, and helpful to each other.  Many of these folks remained friends over the years.

Being a good neighbor doesn’t always mean doing things for someone but being there if a need crops up.

The same thing held true in Othello where we made a two-year stop on the way to the Seattle area, where we eventually settled in Bothell.

There it was the same. We had an Irish immigrant on one side of us and all the residents up and down the dead-end street were very friendly.

Some people complain about their neighbors. Not us.

We have continued contact with a lot of former neighbors since leaving these places. Many of them have also left, but we continue these friendships from Alaska to Pittsburg.

It brings up the question about our own stewardship as a neighbor.  

I am looking at a Waterford vase given to me by my Irish neighbor, Mike Hanrahan. Sad to say he has passed on, but I still call his wife, Margaret.

Mike retired from being a school administrator, then bought a boat and worked at gill netting to put his two sons through college.

The vase gift was from one of his return trips to Ireland.

I couldn’t begin to count the kindness expressed over the years from them.

Being a good neighbor is one way to reform the planet, and particularly where you live.

Being there for someone else usually means they are there for you.

It has nothing to do with whether you believe the same as they do.

Currently, the state of our politics has clouded some of these things.

Got a nice note from one of my favorite people, Colleen Leskinen, who lives on the outskirts of Nespelem. She will be the first person I will visit  when spring comes around, and it is sure to.

Colleen was mayor of Nespelem when we first met, and I would cover the town’s council meetings.

To me, she is the unheralded queen of Nespelem, even if she lives now outside the town limits.

Colleen has a daycare operation with over 20 children to manage.

She is one of the hardest working individuals you will ever find.