THE STATUS QUO

Across the street, for three houses down, none of the people have any trees; directly behind us and beside us on two sides, there are no trees. We're surrounded by trees and I love my "JUNGLE". In fact, I was upset when my husband cut down some bushes to make a path in the back yard to the street. Before that I couldn't see the next door neighbors houses or down the street, except in the winter, when the trees lost their leaves. Thank goodness for "Big Ben"--the name of the enormous pine in the back yard--as he gives us great protection and privacy. Several years ago one of the neighbors grumbled to Gerald about having to rake "OUR" leaves!

When we first moved here, we noticed that some of the neighbors had aluminum pot pie pans tied in their trees. Then we noticed some of them were outside banging boards together. We thought this was rather curious behavior. One day Gerald was outside and the next-door neighbor asked him, "What do you folks do to get rid of the birds?" Gerald naively answered, "We do everything we can to attract them." Obviously that was not the right thing to say; the neighbor turned and walked away and didn't speak to him for the next several years. They kept banging and clanging to keep away the birds and we were installing bird houses! I told Gerald we had "disturbed the status quo".

Eventually that house was bought by people who turned out to be friendlier neighbors! Or, perhaps, it was because, when we moved here, WE were the new neighbors with different customs, and now, we are the long-time residents, but I'm not grumbling! All of the houses around us, except for one, are now inhabited by people who bought the houses after we were here. AHA! We're now the status quo!