June 28, 2010
Every morning – and I mean
EVERY morning – my back fence neighbor Bill “delivers” the morning paper. His is really the second, and far more
important, delivery. The first is the drive by heave at 90 mph by the official
delivery person.
It amazes me that they
nearly always hit my yard at that speed. And in fact, a few times I have been
out in the morning as they went by. It’s
something to see. Full speed, I am
convinced the vehicle (not sure it’s a car or truck because it’s going too
fast) has no brakes. Two houses from me the driver winds up, next door he
releases, it crosses my neighbor’s yard in the air and lands in mine, AND he
waves! Now THAT is Superman!
Not really…. BILL is
Superman. Every morning he times his
first walk of Newton
his dog to when he hears the paper delivery rocket in the neighborhood. He
knows the route by heart. Bill follows after at the pace of a dachshund, finds
the paper in a person’s yard (I wonder if he thinks of it as something of a
daily Easter Egg hunt?) and puts it within a foot of the front door so that I
and my neighbors don’t need to step outside to get the paper.
Not only is that magnificent
five-minute community, but it accomplishes four things: Bill gets a good daily
walk (he is in his 80s), every morning I know he is ok because the paper is by
my door, not in the rose bush, I don’t have to fetch my paper, and Newton takes
care of business.
How many things can you
accomplish in five minutes that remind YOUR WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD DAILY
that we are community in the same way Bill’s “paper route” does here?