The fence between us

When we moved out to the township eight years ago the almost-half-an-acre yard seemed huge compared to the city lot we'd just left. But more than the far-reaching expanse of green lawn, I loved the wide swath of woods that had been kept intact bewteen the our yard and the yards of houses on the street behind us. And I loved this, the only fence around at that time.

I understand this is called a good neighbor fence because both sides are the "good" side. There's no wrong side or inside; neither my neighbor nor myself has to gaze at what you might call each other's shortcomings, whether an unfinished fenceback or a feeble lawn struggling to grow in tired, sandy soil was a forest floor. Too tall to talk over; too dense to see through, you might say such a fence encourages pleasant, if a little distant neighborly relationships.

Three families have lived on the other side of this one. We've had no quarrel with any of them. Robert Frost had it right about good fences making good neighbors.

And the reverse is also true, if those who encroach the other edges of our yard are any example. Like the kitty-corner backstreet neighbor who erected the 8-ft stockade to create a fortress for his pool. Or "Eddie" on the no-fence side who put his hot tub outside our bedroom window. And his air conditioner.

But worst of all is the guy who moved in behind us, put up a board fence with the wrong side facing us then never leveled off his post-tops. Among its other effects, his fence forced the neighborhood kids to walk the long way around the block to catch the late school bus. His final act of unneighborliness was to cut down most of the woods between our yard and his -- a natural tree fence that kept us from staring in each others' windows -- because he wanted to grow a lawn.

With the fence there, we never got a chance to tell him about the tired, sandy loam that resists all attempts to coax grass from it. Good neighbors that we are, we stayed where the fence bade us, minding our own yard and our own business.

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On another note, I deleted the template for my home page -- argh!! I will have to painstakingly recreate my side links some other day.