Like a good neighbor

Well...not just LIKE a good neighbor - they were good neighbors. I had a dream last night that conjured up our neighbors at our home at 201 East Prairie. This morning, while getting ready for work I was thinking of them - Don and Betty. It took me a while to come up with their last name = Tyner.

They lived in the yellow house behind ours - it was actually on Walnut Street. We bought that house, in Creston, Iowa in 1986. (Mom came up with the last $2,000 - they drove a hard bargain!) It was mostly green, with some pink. Yee. But the house had cool bones, and it was the best of all the ones we looked at (that we could afford...) We immediately began painting and putting up wallpaper. Degreening the place.

It was November when we moved in, so it took until the next spring for us to meet the neighbors. We were out in the yard with our toddling girl and the little strawberry blond was a natural ice breaker! And Amy soon grew to be a favorite of our neighbors Don and Betty, who were about my parents age. The couple had raised three daughters in Creston, and had a few grandkids of their own, but none of them lived nearby. Betty especially headed lots of attention on Amy.

Tyners allowed the young couple next door to borrow stuff from them. And not just sugar! They had a camcorder - back before they were in your phone...This was the giant kind that looked like a TV camera. We borrowed it for Jud's baptism. Don had a bright red Ford truck that he allowed young Paul Goldsmith to use anytime we needed to haul stuff.

The summer Jud was three years old, Don and Betty decided to add a screened in porch onto their house where the deck was. They hired a carpenter named Paul to build it. Jud was very interested in the process and Paul very patiently answered the 3-year-old's endless questions. "What are you doing now Paul?" "Why?" The porch turned out perfect. Frequently when they sat there, the children wanted to go see them. Of course our dog Moki thought he was one of them. A kid that is...he thought he belonged in the porch with them and rammed his head into the screen until Don let him in too. Gee they were good sports.

When Amy learned to play the piano, Betty insisted she could in and play a tune for her - and of course Betty raved about how good she was! Jud and Amy could always count on the Tyners to purchase anything they were selling too - sports team stuff or St. Malachy goods. It didn't matter.

It was hard to tell Don and Betty that we were moving. We didn't want them to see the "For Sale" sign and find out that way. Of course we'd still see them around town occasionally. About a couple years before we moved away I read in the paper that Don had passed away. So sad to think of Betty without him. The service was set for when I was out of town, so I wasn't able to attend. So I sent a card of course. We were lucky to have good neighbors like the Tyners. I'm glad my dream conjured them up!