Thanks for the kind words avalancher. I'm 48 and I remember when it was ok to help your neighbor if you saw he needed help. Or when a handshake was enough to close a deal. Nowadays folks are so wary of each other and hesitant to get to know each other. The world is in a sad state but like you said the folks on this board come across as very helpful, very knowledgeable, very hard working, very funny sometimes, and very friendly. Looking at some of the pictures some of you guys post of where you live really makes me long for the country life away from all the noise and calamity of the city.
Oh well...maybe one day.
I have to say, Buffalo is an overly conservative city, too much so for its own good, and I don't mean politics (so don't start that argument). However, we are known as the "City of good neighbors", and its absolutely true. I' live outside the city, but its even more true out in the boonies. We help each other after snow storms, shoveling each other out, plowing snow, pulling people out of snow banks and/or ditches, clearing sidewalks, and so on. After big storms, we help each other get cleaned out, running saws, clearing brush, patching up houses and so on. Even when I was young, I used to help my buddies grandparents bale hay, I still do it to this day for them, and I don't ask anything in return besides the traditional good home cooked meal his grandma always makes for us.
My father moved to main street when him and my mother split way back when, I couldn't stand it. To this day I don't really like spending too much time there, his neighbors constantly call the cops for bonfires, chimney smoke (from the fireplace), noise complaints (we aren't loud past 10, and its usually just guys drinking beer in the bar room), and other BS they can whine about. Instead of coming over and asking us to do something, they avoid all contact and just call it in. How neighborly! Needless to say, after trying to help them clean up their yard after a storm and getting screwed (I'll explain in a minute), I don't do anything for them besides smile and wave when I drive by.
What they did to me after our October storm a few years back, was call the state troopers and have me ticketed for trespassing. I was in their yard, with the saw, about 3 in the afternoon, cutting up the bigger chunks so they could move them without killing themselves (they're a bit older, and not in great shape). So I'm moving some stuff, cutting up some of the bigger branches and a Trooper roll's up and because they pushed, he had to issue me a ticket to appear in court. They accused me of trespassing (which is legit, but honestly, a guy is trying to help you out and thats how you thank him?), and stealing firewood. Now I didn't move anything besides brush so I could cut more of the crap that was buried underneath it. Well since I golf with the town judge, he knows what kind of person I am. We showed up to court, and he thoroughly reprimanded THEM for causing trouble and wasting tax-payers money sending a trooper out there. Then he told them that even though I did it as volunteer work, they really should at least give me payment for fuel and wear and tear (I think he was just rubbing it in), but I never saw a dime (go figure).
Some people get it, some people don't.
