Guess what would be brilliant...

Sadly, it often gets kicked back in your face. A couple of years ago when we had that really heavy snowfall, I had a hell of a job getting my car out to go to work in the morning (in short, there was a huge pavement in front of the houses with marked parking bays and then kerbside spaces as well, so a double row of cars; I parked on the pavement but had to negotiate a gap between neighbours cars to get out onto the road).

When I got home from work, I decided to clear the parking areas and the footpath, and I had a huge sack of rock salt in the shed (not cheap stuff) to help - - I cleared the area in front of my house, and then down to the end of the pavement in one direction (where the cars drove onto the pavement), and then a few car lengths up to a dropped kerb where cars drove off the pavement.

Not only did not a single soul say a word of thanks or offer to help shovelling the snow, but the woman three doors down actually had a pop at me a few days later for the salty footprints being dragged onto her carpets! (Here's a radical idea love, take yer shoes off at the door!)

I'm not saying its always the case, but sadly its things like that that make some people think that they can't be bothered.

 

We live in a country area with fields both sides of the road. One winter's Sunday there was a blizzard that started at lunchtime and We were at my sister's house a couple of miles away. By 4 p.m. it was getting quite bad so we decided to go home. The car didn't make it. We got within 400 yds of home and the snow had drifted off the fields so deep that the car couldn't go any further and we had to walk the rest. It took us almost 20 minutes through 3ft drifts!

The snow stopped shortly after that and the morning was lovely and sunny. So I went out, carrying a spade, to look at the car - and couldn't find (bit of an exaggeration)! The snow had drifted right over the top. This was right outside of the farmyard and the farmer said he was just about to clear the road up to the village - he wanted to get his workers in. He did this with the sugar beet shovel attached to his tractor. He first helped me clear the snow from around the car - very neighbourly - and then went off to the village.

A week later he got a visit from a man from the Council who said that the union had objected to him clearing the road as it took away some of their overtime (our road was a 'day three' priority). The farmer politely told him to go somewhere else and said that if the union wished to complain about what he did then they should come to him themselves. He never heard from them again.

 

A friend of ours had a back operation and it was taking longer than expected to heal. His wife said he was getting quite concerned about the state of the garden. So I chucked my gardening tools into the car and drove the 100 miles each way to get his garden tidy.

That's what friends are for!

 

Got it in one there shiney have done same thing.. Without a second thought..

We have a couple of days a year in our village where we have a big clear up & it always seems to be the same crew even though it is advertised well, it is the same old story of "yes will be there" but of course most don't.. We do always do well at it & it all looks so much better for it & the local council streetcare dept supply us with a skip, black bags, picker upper thingys, rubber gloves of different weights & sizes & yellow waistcoats all for free & arrange for the skip to be collected.. It works well & has been running for years now.
The Pre school kids do a sponsered clear-up too to raise funds for their nursery as well, so it helps the village & them.. Suprising how much they raise too..

 

I should add that the experience above was at our old house, and although we haven't quite been here a year yet, already the neighbours are much friendlier and seem to be an altogether better bunch. Time will tell I suppose, as I won't find out for sure until someone complains (or not) after I do something (which is likely to be cutting the grass along the pavements, but that is a whole different thread).