Friends and Neighbors

The time: the mid-seventies. The place: our front yard. The situation: a water main break, decreed by the city council to be on our property. Our property = we get it fixed. Cast of characters: assorted family and neighbors gathered to offer suggestions, observations or help as we tried to locate the actual break.

That’s David Saunders standing behind Dan and Joe Scicluna, Albert pointing out something of interest, Joe Saunders and Jimmy Morris and Ernie, looking surprisingly unconcerned about the whole mess. The guy in the hole who looks like he is about to audition for a revival of The Village People is our former neighbor, Don Corbin. Note that Don is the only one actually doing anything. He was a great neighbor who could always be relied on for practical help. One of my most vivid memories of him is the time he jumped into his car at 3:00 a.m., then chased and stopped the drunk who had ploughed into our car, which was parked on the street in front of our house. We slept through the whole thing!

This is another photograph I came across recently which took me back to the past. The boys in the photograph are approaching forty and Joe died a couple of years ago. I see Don once in a while. Serendipity played a large part in this story. Not two days after I found this photo, Don was visiting his old house and walked into our kitchen. I’m not sure what to make of that, but it was good to see an old neighbor again.