When we first moved into this house as its initial (and to this date, only) owners, our neighbours had already been in residence for two to three years, our house being the last to be built on our street, as an experimental model.  By the time we moved in, however, the neighbourhood was ready to erect fences, all the home-owners prepared to exert themselves in a grand effort to fence in their backyards.

The fencing material was bought in one fell swoop, at an advantageous price, and everyone set to, being neighbourly, doing their best to finish the job as expeditiously as possible.  With everyone working together, no one house-holder was left with the job of doing their own fence; the closest neighbours were all involved, finishing one, moving on to the next, until the job was done.

That was over twenty years ago.  Some of the fences have aged better than others; some having to be replaced, and others requiring remedial work.  Last spring, we and one of our neighbours had to replace part of the fence separating our two properties; a strong wind had brought some of the sections down.  But two people working together got the job done in good time, with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Our fence along the back has been deteriorating for years.  The back neighbours are no longer the original owners, the house having been sold three times.  The new owners are young, and they are the type of people who do nothing for themselves and have scant interest in their neighbours.  We've found them to be extremely unfriendly.

They hire people to look after their two young children, they hire lawn professionals to mow their lawns, they hire people to come in to do their house cleaning.  And, when the fences on either side behind us separating their backs from those of their neighbours fell in hefty high winds, they left it to their neighbours to do the retrofitting of the fence, unwilling to themselves become involved.

My husband has known for awhile that he'd have to fix up that fence separating our backyard from theirs.  And, he felt, early spring, right now, was the right time, before the gardens began to grow in and make the work more difficult.  Off he went to buy the stakes, the posts, the lugs and whatever else he needed, and he set to, doing the job.  No mention to the neighbour behind that as this was a shared fence separating properties he too had an obligation here.  It's just simpler to pay for the materials and do the work, and then just forget about it.

Back fence and gardens in June

More's the pity.  But those attitudes are perhaps symptomatic either of changing social values, or the presence of a family simply disinterested in their social and civil personal responsibilities to what we so often consider to be the greater social contract.