Root River Diary: Good Neighbors

Good Neighbors

While walking down the gravel road after taking a misdelivered package to a neighbor to the north, I picked up a couple beer bottles someone had chucked out their window.

My neighbor to the south stopped to chat, and grinning, commented that I was starting early, wasn’t I?

I asked him if they’d received a notification from the mail carrier about needing to raise their mailbox. I had — and was worrying about how to go about achieving the goal of a ten-inch boost.

He said no, theirs was fine but he had recently thought about mine seeming low. He said he’d take a look at it.

I said I was afraid of saying anything to him about it, as I knew he’d say that.

He said he missed helping my late husband with projects, that he enjoyed the time they would spend together fixing things.

I said yes, I know. He drove off.

The next day the mailbox was raised.

— Bonnie Gibson, rural Peterson