By Glenn Dromgoole

When we moved to a new neighborhood a few years ago, we were pleasantly surprised to see that, on our trash pickup days, our empty dumpster had been rolled up to our garage by someone.

We didn’t know who. It happened early in the morning before we were up and about. It was a thoughtful gesture, and we jokingly referred to our anonymous benefactor as the “dumpster fairy.”

After a few weeks, we actually saw her in action, and we said, “Oh, you’re the dumpster fairy.” She laughed and said, “Well, I’ve been called worse!” We had just met our considerate neighbor who lived a couple of doors down.

Six years later, she’s still at it. When she goes for her early morning walks, she rolls all the neighbors’ dumpsters out of the street, up their driveways to their garages.

It’s a small thing. We’re all perfectly capable of doing it ourselves, but the fact that she takes the time to do it for us brightens our day. 

These days, most of us probably don’t know many of our neighbors. Way back when, we used to have front porches, and neighbors would often wave or stop by and visit. Now we’re more likely to stay inside in air-conditioned comfort or grill burgers in the backyard. We rarely see our neighbors, much less get to know them.

Maybe that’s not all that bad. Some neighbors could be nosy or bossy or opinionated.

But others could be thoughtful and helpful, and we’ve lost that personal touch of humanity, of community. So, when someone takes in on herself or himself to be a good neighbor, even in some small way, it encourages us to maybe go and be one, too.

It brings to mind the signature song by that good man on TV who went by the name of Mister Rogers and quietly championed positive values.

“Won’t you, please,” he sang, “be my neighbor?”

Glenn Dromgoole and his wife Carol own Texas Star Trading Company in downtown Abilene.