I have a neighbor, a good neighbor. He’s the best neighbor I’ve ever had, to be quite honest. He has a snowblower and I don’t. So because he is such a good neighbor, he comes by our place every time he’s out there evicting the snow from his driveway and does the same to ours.
I try to beat him out there in the morning with a snow shovel in hand when it’s coming down hard, but I never can. I’ve been able to get my boots on a few times, but as soon as I am about to walk out the door, I see him and his gas-powered machine clearing our driveway with modern ease.
Life is too quiet, and so much of the living happened in the past. Maybe there just isn't enough life.
In good Midwestern fashion, I plead with him every winter and tell him that he doesn’t have to do it, but he insists that he wants to. I’ve told his wife that he doesn’t have to as well, and she tells me that I need to let him. So I have to believe them and I have to let him.
Staying busy
I always end up talking with our neighbors more than my wife does. I don’t know if it’s because I’m outside more or if I am more receptive to conversation, but wherever we have lived, the neighbors always end up talking with me. They tell me all sorts of stuff. Some personal stuff, some neighborhood stuff, some stuff about kids and grandkids, and all the kinds of stuff neighbors might talk about.
My nice neighbor told me he was a single father to three young kids. His first wife — their mother — left, and he ended up with full custody. That’s a strange thing to happen, but it happens, I guess. He told me he just got used to staying busy and cleaning a lot during those years. And so he still does that same thing. He’s outside cleaning and cutting and snowblowing all the time. So I let him snowblow our driveway.
His kids have kids too. One just had his fifth. Both he and his wife are busy helping with grandkids these days. He dictated a convoluted schedule to me the other day. They pick them up for school, or maybe it was soccer or something. I don’t know or don’t remember. Whatever it is, they end up helping out a lot right now.
Kids welcome
He asks about our kids whenever I see him. He knows them pretty well too. They are outside a lot, and whenever they see him raking or mowing or taking something out to the trash, they run over and talk to him. They also climb up in the trees and peep into his back yard and look through the cracks in the fence despite us telling them not to be such creeps.
He doesn’t judge our terrible yard of balding grass and tons of toys, and he doesn’t get ticked off at our crazy kids. He says he remembers that well.
We are expecting our fourth in January. He asked me if we are done after that or if we just let whatever happens happen. I told him the latter. He said he grew up in a family of six kids, intimating that he understands bigger families.
We got to talking about birth rates and how people don’t have those kinds of big families any more. We are the only big family on the street. Yes, in America of 2026, a family with three kids is considered a big one, believe it or not. We talked about how fun it is being part of a bigger family, sharing a room as a kid, and all that kind of stuff.
He’s a nice neighbor because he’s a nice guy. And he is a nice guy because that’s who he is. Though I wonder if he is nicer because he has kids and grandkids. He’s not crotchety or grumpy. He isn’t calling the cops on our kids yelling and screaming in the back yard because they are having a good time outside rather than sitting indoors on an iPad.
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Full of life
All of it makes me think about the less obvious impacts families have on our social fabric. Of course, families mean more people in the future, but I wonder about the other things that come with having lots of families around.
Kids make noise. They leave toys everywhere. They climb trees and look through cracks in fences. Grandkids need rides to school and soccer practice. Somebody else's driveway needs snowblowing. When there are a lot of people around, the world is busier and noisier. It's messier and more chaotic. It's more full of life.
Maybe part of the grand ennui that seems to be coursing through our culture is due to the fact that there aren't enough families around. Life is too quiet, and so much of the living happened in the past. Maybe there just isn't enough life.
Or maybe it's that being around more life makes you more alive yourself. There are more people to talk to, more people needing things from you, more reasons to get out of the house and do something.
My neighbor certainly doesn't seem to mind. Every time it snows, he finishes his driveway and comes over to do mine.
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[H/T Blaze Media]
