Merry Christmas

Sometimes if you stay in a place long enough, you'll see some things change for the better.

We have two sets of neighbors who have been fighting for twenty years. As far as I can tell, it all started with "Barbara's" four kids. Three of her kids no longer live at home, but her youngest daughter, "Mary Ann" still lives at home with her two-year-old son, "Michael."

Anyway, it appears that all four of Barbara's kids were hellions as they were growing up and tormented the second neighbor's kids. The second neighbors, "Tom" and "Nancy", told us once that they believed Barbara's kids had broken into their house some years earlier and started their kitchen on fire. On another occasion, Tom and Nancy's dog had mysteriously died and they believed that Barbara's kids were somehow responsible for that, too. Though police investigations turned up nothing in either case, general ill will grew between Barbara and Tom and Nancy.

Once or twice a year, Erin and I saw the emotional pot boil over as Barbara would engage in screaming matches with Tom and Nancy in the middle of the street. One Thanksgiving weekend about five years ago, Tom and another neighbor, "Woody", approached me in my front yard and asked if I would join them in some kind of witch hunt against Barbara. Barbara had always been pleasant to Erin and me and since we were always dubious about Tom and Nancy's own involvement in the neighbor war, I declined.

Then something interesting happened. About three years ago, Barbara's husband, "Rick", either got kicked out of the house or simply left the marriage. A few months later Barbara's new beau, "Josh", moved in. Josh was a hard-working, soft-spoken, friendly guy who seemed to get along with everyone. He was one of those unusually nice neighbors who would just come over to say "hi" or help you unload the 40 plants you just bought at the nursery.

A year later, I caught Josh and Tom having a friendly conversation on Tom's driveway. I was a little astounded. Could it be that a truce had been called? I called Erin over to the window to confirm what I was seeing. She couldn't believe it, either.

And sure enough, things started to improve between our neighbors. I've never asked either of them about it, so I'm not sure I'll ever know what happened.

This morning, I saw Tom on Barbara's driveway blowing the eight inches of snow we received early Christmas morning. Later in the day, I saw Josh taking a walk with Michael. Michael was wearing a new bright green parka that Santa must have brought him.

Christmas doesn't get much better than that.