We've had an endless succession of snowfalls this early in the winter season, this year. Necessitating endless bouts of shovelling to clear our walkways, front (and back, to enable our little dog to trot about in the backyard and evacuate or otherwise as the need arises) as well the driveway, so that we can exit and enter with our car as required. It's what everyone really has to do to keep up with the vagaries of the winter season.

It's nothing short of exhausting having to continually do all these clean-ups, helped immeasurably by the use of a mechanical device called a snow-thrower. Ours, purchased second-hand twenty-one years ago has been a reliable workhorse, which a slight amount of maintenance and an occasional repair has kept in its workable state. Of course such concerns are also alleviated by many of our neighbours making the personal decision that they would sign onto snow-cleaning contracts with outside sources, so their driveways are cleared after snowfalls with the use of tractors with front-end ploughs attached.

That clears the driveways for them but not their porches, decks or walkways, which must then be done by hand, shovelling. My husband has been curious about how much improved mechanically and in efficiency the new models of snow-throwers are, which have additional features that ours does not, like lighting, for example. And yesterday he discovered just how our trusty old snow-thrower compares in practical useage with newer models.

A long-time neighbour directly across the street from our home had day-surgery two days earlier, so that put him out of physical capabilities to exert himself. The neighbour to his right is another long-time neighbour, as is the one across the street, beside us. Both have young adults in their 20s living in their homes, and the neighbour sitting beside us is a particularly close friend of our post-surgery neighbour. The day before yesterday when there was a light covering of under two inches in the driveways, one of the young men removed the snow as a courtesy at the urgent behest of his mother.

And yesterday, after another full day of snowfall the driveways were again clogged with snow. The neighbour across the street right next to the post-surgical neighbour had cleaned out his driveway. And so had the neighbour right next to us. And my husband set about clearing the snow out of our driveway, made more difficult because the municipal crews had been by, finally, to clear the snow accumulation off the road, and in the process as usual, dumping hard, crusted and icy snow at the end of each driveway.

Once he was finished with our snow-removal chores, my husband went across to offer his services to our out-of-physical-commission neighbour. And he proceeded to use our neighbour's machine. Although it was only two years old, the light worked well, but the chute wouldn't move, and the controls did so only grudgingly with great effort required in the process. The piled up chunks of snow and ice at the foot of the driveway needed to be shovelled by hand, the machine couldn't cope, it simply rode over the mess, and wouldn't dig into it as our old one does.

My husband is 77 years of age, like me, and this is hardly the neighbourly assistance one might expect of an older neighbour, but it became abundantly clear that in this season of neighbourly concern and generosity the plight of someone unable to perform normal functions due to compromised health wasn't a concern of those living very close by, by those young enough to perform such a function without imperilling their physical well-being, but too accustomed to being oblivious to a social contract of being aware of the needs of others, to practise what the season preaches.

Today? Another full day of snow. We can only hope that to help them cope, their son, a strapping adult who lives fairly close by in his own house, will venture out to visit his mother and step-father to give them a hand, as a dutiful son might be expected to do.