another repost

Entry for March 02, 2008
We spent another day at Lehmans yesterday, and took my 72 year old uncle with us. He had a great time there, and even found the new cookstove he wants for his house. He is the only one in the family that understands what we are trying to do, and agrees with us on almost every view we have. He was like a kid in a candy store there, in total awe of what he could buy that he thought was long forgotten. I warned him lol that place can be overwhelming the first time you are there. Even now, after 9 years of shopping there, lisa and I still find something new and usefull.
Yesterday's trip was no exception. We (as always) found something new to buy. We walked out with a new larget oil lamp for the living room, more spare lamp wicks, lamp fuel, a replacement chimney for her grandmothers lamp,a really nice apple corer, a magnetic canning jar lifter, and a new hat for myself.
Yet AGAIN, we managed to go there on auction day. Next door is the auction house that has been there for probably 100 years....farm equiptment, livestock, and just misc. whatever. There were trucks and buggies for every bit of a mile. Every lot near downtown was full, even up to the big church a mile away. Some locals were shuttling people back and forth on hay wagons behind tractors. It's quite a thing to see, a community acting together and helping each other. That's something thats just not seen here. Neighbors here rarely talk to each other, let alone help each other. We have lived in this house for 9 years this May, and the neighbor to the south has talked maybe twice, other than the times I have seen him at the gas station. The people behind us talk when we see them, but they are a bit older, and spend most of their time inside in the air conditioning watching tv. The people who lived on the north side moved 2 years ago, and he had only spoken once. The new family who bought it were only there a year, and now are trying to sell already. So....its not much of a neighborhood.
I remember where I grew up, neighbors were always there to help. For instance, when my dad was working on the barn roof, neighbors would come over to help. When he added the new roof on the house, ( it was a basement house with a flat tar roof-he added a peaked roof), every able-bodied man in the neighborhood came to help. That just doesnt happen anymore, not here.
People are too wrapped up in their own overstressed lives to care about neighbors. Why take all that time to grow your own tomatos when you can just buy them? why repair your own garage roof when you can hire someone? why sit outide around a fire on a beautiful starry night when you can be inside with the air conditioning watching a movie? There have been many times that I have been outside working on some project, when someone drives by on their way to god knows where, and stares, shaking their heads as if I could be doing something less constructive rather than sweating behind a shovel in August. lol Thats another one of my litle insights....people wait all winter, complaining about the cold, waiting for spring and summer and fresh air, then roll up the windows and crank the A/C....I just find it funny.
Ah well, enough for one days rantings, time to go get something accomplished.