Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois © Bill Oliver 16 April 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #15 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, As a young student attending “Sunday School” it was a common practice to memorize Bible verses and getting before you class to recite them. I often wondered who had the idea first; Sunday School Teachers or Public School Teachers? In public school it was very common for a teacher to assign students to memorize a poem and recite it to the class. Some teachers added onto the task the idea that upon reciting the poem before ones’ peers, we then had to explain “the” meaning of the words we recited. One such poem that has stayed with me for nearly a decade beyond a half century begins: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, ...” – Robert Frost [Mending Wall] In the spring New England neighbors would get together and walk their border wall repairing the “gaps” where they have “left not one stone on a stone,” ... “There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors?’ Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. [sic]” We are all probably aware that in the British Isles and New England stone walls are familiar things. Personally I have never had to live where they existed and it would seem to me to be a daunting and tiring task. I’ve a little experience with wire fences and cedar posts. Way back in the fog of childhood memories, I remember Uncle Tim’s farm where he still used horses even though he owned mechanized machines. Uncle Tim had an orchard which included hard red juicy [delicious] apples, and pears. Those horses would smell the sweet fruit and do everything they could to get through the wire and rail fence to gorge themselves [and get sick]. Driving across this wide country; across the plains and mountains, fences are seen everywhere. Low fences and high fences. Some to keep deer and elk off the highways. Fences of barbed wire, probably no longer needed, but testifying to one farmer/rancher sectioning off his barren land from another’s barren land. Fences continue to exist yet today in many parts of the world. Those created out of political conflict and fear quickly come to mind: between North and South Korea, between Israel and Palestinian settlements. A few years ago there was a very tall wall between the Berlins. And, wow, what about the Great Wall of China which still stands today. These are all testimony to the lengths to which we humans will go to barricade ourselves off from others. Though there are fewer horses to keep out of our orchards and no elk to protect from our busy Interstate traffic, those fences we still have are blown over in high winds, have trees fallen over them or are overgrown with brush and wild blackberries – they need repairing. Why? Because fences, like rules and laws, define a state of order and structure. If they are breached, or broken, they become hazardous. Removing them altogether and we lose that order and structure. So in the best of times we mend the walls out of need for contact with our neighbors. We reach across the wall [barriers] to shake hands and visit while we repair the wall; else we fortify and hide behind the wall, widening, increasing their height, creating the gulfs between us. Eventually we lose touch and the walls deteriorate naturally without the mutual “mending”. At least that is what I said when I was a “tad of a lad” explaining the Poem of Robert Frost titled “Mending Wall”. Is this so different from the neighbor whose barn was burned when struck by lightning and the next day the entire community turned up together “raising” the barn. A remarkable testimony to the wonderful spirit and credo that neighbors help neighbors in times of need. “Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are, than we had supposed.” — William James, American philosopher and psychologist There is a story at <http://journal.maine.com/lore/loonalone/20030206001232.html> describing how the town of Wayne, Maine reacted due to an ice storm -- Neighbor helping neighbor. We all have stories of our neighbors helping us in times of need, or us helping them. Recently one of our family members suffered a mild heart attack. She reported to us that friends and neighbors furnished meals for the duration of her recuperation [a couple of weeks anyway]. There is something special and rewarding about helping each other in times of crisis, and this is a hallmark trait of our nation’s people. In my reading this week, I came across what I think is something we never think about in this Neighbor helping Neighbor idea. There's no formal neighborhood watch program in their community, but fiddler crabs in Australia know a thing or two about preserving a safe place to live. Scientists have found that when an "outsider" male threatens to take over another male's burrow, nearby residents help their neighbor defend his territory, especially if the neighbor is smaller than the intruder. Happy Easter, Good Follks! e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) and Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://www.deannedurrett.com/codetalkers.html PostScript: = = = = http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html