My friend Signe was more than just my friend. When we were growing up my parents taught us to help our neighbors. We mowed lawns, shoveled snow, ran errands, and did odd jobs for our elderly neighbors for free. We never even thought of taking money from them. That is not how we were raised. Enter Signe.

I was working at the yacht club here in Oscoda when she came for dinner with her friends. Now Signe was old, maybe 81 or82 years old. She wasn’t feeble or weak, just older. I overheard her tell one of her friends that she was almost out of firewood. She said her wood guy had died last year and she didn’t know any one anymore. I stepped in and mentioned that my wood guy was not only reliable, but he had great dry oak at a reasonable price. She asked if he would stack the wood also. I said he probably wouldn’t but if she needed it stacked that I would stack it for her. I gave her his name and number and then called him the next morning to tell him to wxpect her call and when she did to tell me when he was going to deliver the wood

Now Signe lived about a half mile south of me, so she fit the bill of neighbor. When my pal delivered the wood I was there. We were surprised to see a huge pile of stacked wood already there. 8 or9 cords at least. Signe came out of her house and was surprised to see me there and asked if I was there to stack wood. I said yes and then she proceeded to tell me that all of the old wood had to be moved over 10 feet and restacked and that the new wood was to be stacked in the soon to be vacant spot. What I thought was stacking 10 cords of wood became moving and then stacking a lot more wood. I really didn’t care that much since it was my day off and I had nothing better to do that day.

After I had moved and stacked her old wood exactly as she wanted it, bark up boy scout style, I stacked about 1/2 cord on her back porch standing up the way she showed me she came out with a tall glass of ice water for me. She studied my work and nodded approvingly. Just then the other five cords of wood arrived. Signe loaded it over and said it looked okay and went back inside after paying my pal. I started stacking the new 10 cords. It only took me the rest of the day to stack. When I finally finished and was covering the new pile she came out and said I had done a great job and that she was extremely satisfied with my work. Then she pulled out her wallet and asked how much she should pay me.

Then I told her that neighbors don’t charge neighbors for simple help. And that he was my neighbor and I wasn’t raised like that. I told her that I was raised to help neighbors not charge them. I thought she was about to cry. But she smiled instead and asked if I would like a drink with my neighbor. I smiled and said Whiskey, she nodded. So, we became not only neighbors, but friends.