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We weren’t trying to make enemies. Heaven knows those are easy enough to make without trying but it seemed our new neighbors had a problem with us right from the start. Perhaps we weren’t of the right ilk but you’d think we would be coming from the same state of New York, accents intact and everything. We both did get a hankering to move to the country but since they had their summer home in the Pocono Mountains first, they figured we were the interlopers. So, what that we had been living there on a permanent basis in rented dwellings for the same amount of time.
Interlopers or not, we wanted the land adjacent to theirs, it was for sale and we paid the big bucks for it. If they wanted it to remain open land, empty and wild they should have bought it themselves. However, we needed a place for our family’s new permanent home and we built it on that four acre plot of land next to theirs. But it was four acres and they had four as well. Surely they wouldn’t bother us and we wouldn’t bother them, right? Oh, but how naive we can be at times.
While the builders were doing their thing actually building the house up on the hill about 100 yards away from our neighbor’s back door, we, my husband Tommy and myself, were planning our gardens and developing landscaping schemes. Just the fact that we were taking down the horrible tangle of wild raspberries near the property line seemed to annoy and distress our neighbors.
“But we planted those!” Mrs. Neighbor insisted heatedly.
The mere fact that she was lying about planting something that grows wild all over the entire state of Pennsylvania was enough to make me dislike her. I wanted to tell her I knew she was lying but my mama always told me it was best to say nothing when confronted with a disagreeable person even when you know you are right.
“Sorry, but we have plans for OUR land. You are welcome to dig them up and replant them in YOUR yard,” Tommy said pleasantly, though quite firmly.
We continued to remove them plus the closely related and equally menacing wild Rosa Rugosa, with Mr and Mrs. Neighbor glaring at us from their back porch. It was a twenty foot wide patch of briars which was not in the slightest bit a fun project but we wanted to plant a row of Colorado Blue Spruces so, our kids could be safe from their nasty, ill-tempered dog plus we wouldn’t see them and they wouldn’t see us. It seemed like a good plan since becoming friendly and nice didn’t seem in the cards.
Thorns scratched and dug deep into our skin but we continued undaunted much to our neighbors annoyance. But when we were half done they insisted we stop. We were running in on their land. Tommy tried to reason logically pointing out where the corner pins were but they weren’t listening to interlopers who, they assumed, were probably not even born when they bought this land. There was a dispute but we weren’t in the mood for squabbling as Mr and Mrs neighbor obviously were. We took the matter to a surveyor to put the matter at rest and we paid him for the privilege. Surely he could tell us where the true property line lay and that would be the end of it.
The surveyor did a rough estimate using known pins, some guessing and maps. It seemed he thought the line was a good solid three feet from where our neighbors insisted. That gave us an extra three feet we had suspected was ours but of which we weren’t completely certain. We were satisfied but, alas, the neighbors, needless to say, were not. They hired their own guy, a much better and higher skilled person than the “hick” (their terminology not ours) we hired.
Tommy, as it turned out, knew Surveyor #2. They had been introduced at a local Chamber of Commerce Meeting. When he came out to do the surveying Mr and Mrs. Neighbor were quite put out when Surveyor #2 greeted Tommy warmly, as if they were old friends. His crew did a much more intensive study of the property line and pronounced the other Surveyor guy as a complete moron. Surveyor #2 couldn’t believe we actually paid the man for such a shody job. We couldn’t say one way or the other if Surveyor #1 was a moron but Mr and Mrs Neighbor agreed heartily.
When they were done they told their clients, Mr and Mrs. Neighbor, that they had been quite misinformed of where the property line lay. Yes, Surveyor #1 had been wrong but not in our favor. Surveyor #2 proclaimed the property line another ten feet into our neighbor’s yard. They were incensed and stormed into their house ranting and raving.
Surveyor #2 chuckled and said, “Guess they should have listened to the idiot and kept ten extra feet of your land. City folk, huh?” We laughed too but not in front of the neighbors. Why rub it in, right?
“You can take the person out of New York but the attitude is harder to get rid of,” I told him quietly.
Perhaps we would have gotten along quite well with Mr and Mrs Neighbor if we had been more complacent or in other words allowed them to call the shots but we were New Yorkers too and allowing others to walk all over us, wiping their feet along the way, well, that don’t fly with many of us. Sorry, but I did say we weren’t of the right ilk, didn’t I?
We did, however, make amends by offering over the prevailing years many perennials of which we planted loads. Miscanthus, Hibiscus, Iris, Foxglove, Daylily, Sweet William and Oregano all were handed over the fence and accepted graciously. Now their yard looks as good as ours. I’d say they made out pretty good what with such good neighbors as we turned out to be. Hopefully they agree.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 For more amazing garden facts, a glimpse at an unfinished novel and amusing short stories come visit me at http://www.helium.com/user/32782
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